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European Patent Validation

Effects of the European patent in Contracting State

The patent granted by the European Patent Office shall have the same effects, as the national patents granted in Contracting states.

The European patent shall have the effects in the Contracting State as from the date, when the grant of the European patent was announced in the European Patent Bulletin.

The proprietor of the patent shall be obliged to

  • submit to the Office the translation of the patent specification to the national language within 3 months since this date, and

  • to pay the administrative fee for the publication

In the same time, the proprietor of the patent shall be obliged to

  • submit to the Office the address in the Contracting State, where the official notifications concerning his patent are to be sent.


The Office shall announce the grant of the European patent in the Bulletin and publish the translation of the European patent specification.

If the translation of the European patent specification to the national language is not submitted within the period specified above, the proprietor of the European patent may submit it in the additional time limit of 3 months, provided that he will pay the administrative fee according to the special regulation.

If the translation of the European patent specification to the national language is not submitted even within the additional time limit according to the above paragraph, the European patent shall be considered in the Contracting State as null and void from the outset.

After the announcement of the grant of the European patent in the European Patent Bulletin, the Office shall enter the European patent to the National Register of European patents with the data.


Extent of protection from the European patent

The text of the European patent in the language of the proceedings before the European Patent Office shall be decisive for the determination of the extent of protection conferred by the European patent; nevertheless, if the extent of protection conferred by the translation of the patent specification, submitted to the National Office of the Contracting State is narrower than in the language of proceedings, third parties can refer to this translation.

The proprietor of a European patent is entitled to submit to the Office the corrected translation of the European patent specification to the national language. The corrected translation shall have effects instead of the original translation as from the publication of the corrected translation by the National Office; the proprietor of the European patent shall pay the fee for the publication according to special regulations.

The rights of third persons, which on the territory of the Contracting State in good faith have used or have realised serious and effective preparations to use the subject-matter, which pursuant to the translation valid in the period before the publication of the corrected translation by the National Office was not covered by the extent of this European patent, are not affected by the delivery of the new translation.


Prohibition of the simultaneous protection

If the national patent is granted to the invention, to which the European patent has been granted with the same right of priority to the same proprietor of the patent or his successor in title, the national patent shall cease to have effect to the extent that it is identical with the European patent, from the date, on which the period for filing the notice of opposition to the European patent expires without such notice being filed, or the date of entry into force of the decision, by which the European patent has been maintained in the opposition proceedings.

The national patent shall not have effects to the extent that it is identical with the European patent, if it was granted after the expiry of the period for filing the notice of opposition to the European patent without such notice being filed, or after the date of entry into force of the decision, by which the European patent has been maintained in the opposition proceedings.

The provisions mentioned in the above two paragraphs shall not be affected by the revocation of the European patent.

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European Patent

Term of the European patent

The term of the European patent shall be 20 years from the date of filing of the application.

Nothing in the preceding paragraph shall limit the right of a Contracting State to extend the term of a European patent, or to grant corresponding protection which follows immediately on expiry of the term of the patent, under the same conditions as those applying to national patents: 

(a) in order to take account of a state of war or similar emergency conditions affecting that State; 

(b) if the subject-matter of the European patent is a product or a process for manufacturing a product or a use of a product which has to undergo an administrative authorisation procedure required by law before it can be put on the market in that State. 

It shall apply mutatis mutandis to European patents granted jointly for a group of Contracting States.


Rights conferred by a European patent

A European patent shall confer on its proprietor from the date on which the mention of its grant is published in the European Patent Bulletin, in each Contracting State in respect of which it is granted, the same rights as would be conferred by a national patent granted in that State.

If the subject-matter of the European patent is a process, the protection conferred by the patent shall extend to the products directly obtained by such process.

Any infringement of a European patent shall be dealt with by national law. 

The European patent application and the resulting European patent shall be deemed not to have had, from the outset to the extent that the patent has been revoked or limited in opposition, limitation or revocation proceedings.


Extent of protection

The extent of the protection conferred by a European patent or a European patent application shall be determined by the claims. Nevertheless, the description and drawings shall be used to interpret the claims.

For the period up to grant of the European patent, the extent of the protection conferred by the European patent application shall be determined by the claims contained in the application as published. However, the European patent as granted or as amended in opposition, limitation or revocation proceedings shall determine retroactively the protection conferred by the application, in so far as such protection is not thereby extended.

In any designated Contracting State a European patent application and a European patent shall have with regard to a national patent application and a national patent the same prior right effect as a national patent application and a national patent. A national patent application and a national patent in a Contracting State shall have with regard to a European patent designating that Contracting State the same prior right effect as if the European patent were a national patent. Any Contracting State may prescribe whether and on what terms an invention disclosed in both a European patent application or patent and a national application or patent having the same date of filing or, where priority is claimed, the same date of priority, may be protected simultaneously by both applications or patents. 

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Applying for European Patent

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.

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