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The European Patent Office (EPO) [notes 1] is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. [4] The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation [5] [6] while the Administrative Council acts as its supervisory body [5] as well as, to a limited extent, its legislative body.
The European Patent Convention is "a special agreement within the meaning of Article 19 of the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris on 20 March 1883 and last revised on 14 July 1967, and a regional patent treaty within the meaning of Article 45, paragraph 1, of the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 19 June 1970."
The EPC of 1973 made no provision for a limitation procedure, [6] and a fortiori no provision for centrally limiting a European patent before the EPO after the nine-month period for filing an opposition (nine months as from the date of grant of the European patent). The travaux préparatoires laid out the rationale for a limitation procedure:
Simple patent family: All patent documents have exactly the same priority date or combination of priority dates. [4] Extended patent family: All patent documents are linked (directly or indirectly) via a priority document belonging to one patent family. The extended families allow for additional connectors to link other than strictly priority date.
The European Patent Convention requires all jurisdictions to give a European patent a term of 20 years from the actual date of filing an application for a European patent or the actual date of filing an international application under the PCT designating the EPO. [2] The actual date of filing can be up to a year after the earliest priority date.
Patent applications can be filed at the relevant national patent office or at the EPO. Alternatively, an international application may be filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and later nationalised in the desired countries or at the EPO. However, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands ...
A regional patent application is one which may have effect in a range of countries. The European Patent Office (EPO) is an example of a regional patent office. The EPO grants patents which can take effect in some or all countries contracting to the European Patent Convention (EPC), following a single
The purpose of the EPO opposition proceedings is to give members of the public, such as competitors of the patent proprietor, the opportunity to challenge centrally before the EPO the validity of a granted European patent. [8] [notes 1] No commercial or any other interest whatsoever need be shown. [3]