International Patent Law

The European Patent Convention (EPC) is an international treaty between European countries.

For the Contracting States the EPC establishes a European Patent Organisation ("EPO") and a uniform system for the filing and grant of patents. Such "European Patents" have in each of the Contracting States the effect of a national patent granted by that State, and are is subject to the same conditions.

The procedure in case of an infringement of a European Patent follows the national legal system of each different Contracting State.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international treaty and provides the possibility to file one single patent application (an "international" patent application) that has for a certain time the same effect as a national patent application, instead of filing multiple national or regional patent applications. After filing an international patent application, the national procedures in the designated States are delayed until the end of the 30th month from the priority date. Within this period the applicant must decide whether and in which countries respectively he wants to enter into the national phase by fulfilling the national requirement, i.e. paying national fees and filing translations of the application.