General requirements
Persons entitled to apply for and obtain a European patent
A European patent application may be filed by any natural or legal person, or anybody equivalent to a legal person by virtue of the law governing it.
A European patent application may also be filed either by joint applicants or by two or more applicants designating different Contracting States.
The inventor shall have the right, vis-à-vis the applicant for or proprietor of a European patent, to be mentioned as such before the European Patent Office.
The right to a European patent shall belong to the inventor or his successor in title. If the inventor is an employee, the right to a European patent shall be determined in accordance with the law of the State in which the employee is mainly employed; if the State in which the employee is mainly employed cannot be determined, the law to be applied shall be that of the State in which the employer has the place of business to which the employee is attached.
If two or more persons have made an invention independently of each other, the right to a European patent therefor shall belong to the person whose European patent application has the earliest date of filing, provided that this first application has been published.
In proceedings before the European Patent Office, the applicant shall be deemed to be entitled to exercise the right to a European patent.
If by a final decision it is adjudged that a person other than the applicant is entitled to the grant of the European patent, that person may, in accordance with the Implementing Regulations:
(a) prosecute the European patent application as his own application in place of the applicant;
(b) file a new European patent application in respect of the same invention; or
(c) request that the European patent application be refused.