The European Patent Application as an Object of Property

A European patent application may be transferred or give rise to rights for one or more of the designated Contracting States.

An assignment of a European patent application shall be made in writing and shall require the signature of the parties to the contract. 

A European patent application may be licensed in whole or in part for the whole or part of the territories of the designated Contracting States.

Unless Convention provides otherwise, the European patent application as an object of property shall, in each designated Contracting State and with effect for such State, be subject to the law applicable in that State to national patent applications.

Where the applicants for or proprietors of a European patent are not the same in respect of different designated Contracting States, they shall be regarded as joint applicants or proprietors for the purposes of proceedings before the European Patent Office. The unity of the application or patent in these proceedings shall not be affected; in particular the text of the application or patent shall be uniform for all designated Contracting States, unless Convention provides otherwise. 

Revocation of European patents

A European patent may be revoked with effect for a Contracting State only on the grounds that:

(a) the subject-matter of the European patent is not patentable under Convention;

(b) the European patent does not disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person skilled in the art; 

(c) the subject-matter of the European patent extends beyond the content of the application as filed or, if the patent was granted on a divisional application or on a new application filed, beyond the content of the earlier application as filed;

(d) the protection conferred by the European patent has been extended; or 

(e) the proprietor of the European patent is not entitled.

If the grounds for revocation affect the European patent only in part, the patent shall be limited by a corresponding amendment of the claims and revoked in part.

In proceedings before the competent court or authority relating to the validity of the European patent, the proprietor of the patent shall have the right to limit the patent by amending the claims. The patent as thus limited shall form the basis for the proceedings.