2. When the European Patent Office submits an application for retrieval, it must also make a retrieval request and pay a retrieval fee. About 2 years from the date of application, I received the search report issued by the European Patent Office, and attached a preliminary examination opinion on the patentability of the application.
3. Publication of patent applications Generally, European patents will publish patent applications 18 months from the date of filing.
4. Request for substantive examination and the applicant for substantive examination shall make the request for substantive examination at the same time as the application or within 6 months from the date of publication of the retrieval report of the European Bureau. At the same time as submitting the request for substantive examination, it is also necessary to designate specific member States from European member States and pay the examination fee and designation fee. If seven assignment fees are paid, all the States parties to the European Patent Treaty can be assigned, but the assignment fees of the extension countries need to be paid separately. After the substantive examination, the European patent application enters the actual examination procedure, and usually receives the examination opinions from the European Patent Office within 1-3 years after the actual examination.
5. European patent authorization: After passing the examination, the European Patent Office will issue a copy of the authorization notice to the applicant. The applicant chooses to agree to the authorization text and allows this application to enter the authorization procedure. At the same time, the applicant can also modify the text or claim according to his own will. At the same time, the applicant must pay the authorization fee and submit the translation of the claim in the other two languages. In addition, it is necessary to check whether the translation of the priority certificate has been submitted. After the above work is completed, the European patent is officially authorized and a certificate of authorization is issued.
6. generally, after receiving the notification of authorization, the applicant must decide to choose the effective country from the list of designated countries and inform the European patent office in which countries the patent will take effect. After determining the effective country, according to the regulations of each effective country, it is generally necessary to translate all the contents of this European patent into the language of that country and submit it to the effective country so that this European patent can take effect in that country. Generally speaking, European member States require that the translation work be completed within three months from the announcement of authorization and take effect in various countries, and nine months after the announcement is the objection period. After completing the work that takes effect in different countries, the applicants have patents in different countries, and they are independent of each other, and each item needs to pay an annual fee.
7. The time required for the whole application process of European patent from application to authorization is 3-5 years. 8. The validity period of European patent application is 2 years from the date of application.