European Patents

General

The European Patent Office allows you to file a single patent application, in a single language, English, French or German, which can potentially cover any of the European Union states as well as Switzerland, Turkey, Leichtenstein, and Malta, as well as an increasing number of Eastern European countries.

Upon grant, the European application gives you a bundle of separate national patents. At the grant stage you have to translate your specification into the appropriate languages, which can be quite expensive, but at least it is postponed until you know you have a patent.

The European Application procedure is without doubt the most complex in the world, having more procedural stages than any other. The reason seems to be that the system was put together by diplomats from all of the relevant countries, who were under instructions to preserve as much as possible of their national systems. The resulting compromise requires a large beaurocracy to keep it going, which is paid for by you the user via some of the highest fees in the world.

Patents are available in all fields of technology, although particular exceptions are

• methods of surgery or therapy for humans or animals, although medical equipment and medicines are allowable,
• computer programs as such, although technological processes and devices that use software are allowable.

The Alternative

The European patent application is an alternative to filing national applications in the countries of interest. The advantages of a European application are:

• you file a single application,
• you get a single examination,
• despite the high fees, the European application is the cheapest route for more than three countries,
• if you haven’t finally decided which European countries are of interest, you can designate all states and decide later on,
• the quality of search and examination is very high, and
• you pay for translations only at the end, when you have your patent.

On the other hand, the advantages of direct national filings are as follows:

• For three countries or less it works out cheaper,
• For most of these countries, your patent will be granted more quickly,
• National patents get less notice from competitors and so chances of opposition and like hostile actions are lower.

Why I should want Patents in Europe

The European Union is the largest unified market in the world. It is an important center in all fields of technology, at all levels, meaning in research, manufacture and consumption.

HOME E-MAIL Call Me on +972 (0)3 612 7676 – ask for Geoff