Publication time and content of European invention patent application

Publication time and content of European invention patent application. The European invention patent here refers to the application for European unified invention patent through the European Patent Office (EPO), the European regional patent organization. According to the provisions of the European Patent Convention, the application for a European invention patent can take effect in all designated countries, and the protection received by each specific country that separately applies for Europe is the same. At present, the European Patent Office has 38 member countries, covering the entire EU region and 10 countries outside the EU.

1、 Process of European invention patent application

Submission of application documents → acceptance by the European Patent Office → patent retrieval → publication → request for substantive examination → substantive examination → European patent authorization → designation of European member states to take effect. The publication procedure shall be published 18 months from the earliest priority date. If no priority is claimed, it shall be announced within 18 months from the date of application. The applicant may request to publish in advance.

2、 Contents and languages of publication of European invention patent applications

The published contents of a patent application include bibliographic information, description, claims, drawings and abstract. If the European search report is available at the time of publication of the application document, it will be published as an attachment (published in AI type). If the search report cannot be obtained when the application document is published, it will be published separately later (A3 type publication). It should be noted that the written opinions are not published together with the search report. The publishing language is the program language of the European Patent Office. Applications not submitted in English, German or French are published in the program language.

3、 Publication form of European invention patent application

All European patent applications, European search reports and European patent specifications are only published in electronic form on the European publishing server. All published information can be found on the website of the European Patent Office.

4、 Non publication of European invention patent applications

If the European patent application is rejected, withdrawn or deemed withdrawn before the completion of technical preparation for publication, it will not be published. If the applicant needs to block the publication, he/she must submit a request for withdrawal of the application before the completion of the technical preparation for publication (it is generally believed that the technical preparation for publication is completed 5 weeks before the expiration of 18 months).