Characteristics and Legislation
Register a European Patent
European Patent
European Patent Register
The European Patent is a unified procedure for the processing of patents amongst the contracting states of the Munich Convention of 5 October 1973, which came into force in Spain on 1 October 1986.
The aim of the European Patent Convention (EPC) is to make the protection of inventions easier, cheaper and more reliable in the Contracting States by establishing a single European patent granting procedure based on uniform patent legislation.
Features
on European patents
Duration
Twenty years from the date of filing of the application or the priority date claimed therein.
Rights conferred
A European patent confers on its proprietor, in all Contracting States in which it is granted and validated, the same rights as those conferred by national patents granted in those States.
Any infringement of a European patent shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the relevant national legislation.
The introduction of this procedure does not mean that national procedures will cease to exist; applicants may choose to follow the national route in each country or the single European procedure.
A European patent may be applied for directly at the EPO (European Patent Office), either as a divisional application of a Spanish patent (within twelve months of the filing date of the Spanish patent’s priority) or as a divisional application of an international PCT patent within 31 months of the first priority date.
Priority
From the date of application.
International Priority
Filing a patent application grants the applicant a ONE-YEAR priority period to file the application as a new invention in any of the countries of the Paris Convention (almost all countries worldwide) from the date of filing.
Report on the state of the art
Spanish patents
New Patents Act
Under the new Patents Act (Official State Gazette No. 177 of Saturday 25 July 2015 publishes Act 24/2015 of 24 July on Patents, which will come into force on 1 April 2017), the procedure for requesting the Prior Art Report (IET) has been affected; consequently, under this new Act, it is mandatory to request the PSR at the time of filing the application.
EQUIPMENT
This new Act brings Spanish patent legislation into line with international standards and strengthens the national patent system, establishing a legal framework that prioritises genuinely inventive and novel activity, and introducing a single grant procedure that will enhance legal certainty for applicants and improve the image of the Spanish patent system.