European patent law covers a range of legislations including national patent laws, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, the European Patent Convention of 1973, and a number of European Union directives and regulations. For some states in Eastern Europe, the Eurasian Patent Convention applies.
Patents having effect in most European states may be obtained either nationally, via national patent offices, or via a centralised patent prosecution process at the European Patent Office (EPO). The EPO is a public international organisation established by the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPO is neither a European Union nor a Council of Europe institution. A patent granted by the EPO does not lead to a single European patent enforceable before one single court, but rather to a bundle of essentially independent national European patents enforceable before national courts according to different national legislations and procedures. Similarly, Eurasian patents are granted by the Eurasian Patent Office and become after grant independent national Eurasian patents enforceable before national courts.
European patent law is also shaped by international agreements such as the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement), the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and the London Agreement.
Types of patent protection in Europe
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, and may possibly –if permitted by national law and, if so, to the extent permitted by national law– co-exist within a given jurisdiction. Utility models, referred to as "Gebrauchsmuster" in Germany and Austria, are available in some countries.
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, and Slovenia have "closed their national route" meaning that it is no longer possible to nationalise an international application in those countries directly and protection can only be obtained via the EPO.
European patents
A European patent is the product of a unified grant procedure before the EPO under procedures established by the European Patent Convention (EPC). Before grant, a European patent application is a unitary legal entity. However, after grant, a "European patent" essentially ceases to have unitary character.
Some of the 39 EPC contracting states require the patentee to file a full translation of the granted European patent with the national patent office of the state if the text of the European patent as granted is not in one of their official languages. If the translation is not filed, the European patent is deemed to have no effect from the outset in that state. The London Agreement, which entered into force on May 1, 2008, significantly reduces the number of required translations in the states that are party to it.
A central time-limited opposition procedure and central limitation and revocation procedures before the EPO are available however. The opposition procedure allows any person except for the patent proprietor to oppose a granted European patent in an attempt to have the EPO revoke or amend the patent. The opposition procedure may only be initiated within nine months of the grant of the European patent. The limitation and revocation procedures allow the patentee to centrally request the limitation or revocation of their own European patent.
After the unitary European examination and opposition phase ends, nearly all "unitary" nature of the European patent dissolves, and what remains is a collection of essentially-independent national patents, and ownership, validity and infringement of each being determined independently under respective national law. provides that, in each member country, the national part of the European patent has the identical effect as a national patent with the identical claims would have. The European Patent Convention expressly adopts national law for all substantive attributes of a national part of a European patent, with the following exceptions: