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A characteristic of European patent law as it stands today is that European patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO), and patents granted by national patent offices are available, [3] and may possibly –if permitted by national law and, if so, to the extent permitted by national law [4] – co-exist within a given jurisdiction.
The opposition procedure, governed by the EPC, allows third parties to file an opposition against a European patent within 9 months of the date of grant of that patent. [54] It is a quasi-judicial process, subject to appeal, which can lead to maintenance, maintenance in amended form or revocation of a European patent. Simultaneously to the ...
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:
The filing date of a patent application is the date the patent application was filed in one or more patent offices, i.e. the date on which that application is legally accepted at the patent office. That date is typically the date on which the documents are deposited at the office, but may be later if there are defects in the documents.
Furthermore, Article 54(3) EPC extends the content of the state of the art by also including "the content of European patent applications as filed, the dates of filing of which are prior to the date referred to in paragraph 2 and which were published on or after that date". The purpose of this notional extension of the state of the art under ...
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.
The grant procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO) is an ex parte, administrative procedure, which includes the filing of a European patent application, [1] the examination of formalities, [2] the establishment of a search report, [3] the publication of the application, [4] its substantive examination, [5] and the grant of a patent, [6 ...
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]