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In European countries there are three routes to obtaining granted patents. They are as follows: - (a) File National Application in each country and prosecute it through foreign attorneys to get a National patent. (b) File a single application under an International Convention called the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT), designating the countries where one would like to obtain a National patent eventually. At present 165 countries are members of the PCT and are included free of additional charges initially. At some stage later one can convert the international application into separate national patents on payment of appropriate fees. (c) File a single application in the UK under an International Convention called the European Patent Convention (EPC) and designate the 32 countries in Europe where one would like to obtain patents eventually. When filing under the PCT one can designate all the EPC countries as a single entity. At a later stage one can convert the European Patent into national patents in one or more of the designated countries. All these routes, whether they be national or international routes, lead to a national patent in each selected country. Overall, if one wishes to protect an invention in four or more countries, it is cheaper to use the PCT and EPC routes than separate national routes. This is because national routes involve translation into the language of the country concerned whereas, the International routes are conducted in English. Under the EPC (European Patent Convention) one files a single patent application designating the 32 countries of the EPC. If one pays the search and examination fees and is successful in overcoming the objections raised during examination one obtains a granted patent of identical scope in each designated country. And one has to convert the patent into national patents in one or more of the 32 countries of your choice. These are currently: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (including Liechtenstein), Turkey and the UK. The break-even point of filing costs under EPC is about three to four European countries; four or more European countries are significantly cheaper through EPC than if filed as separate parallel national applications. The EPC may be selected under the PCT route as if the countries in the EPC were one territory. In this case, the “immediate” costs set out in Table 2 against EPC would only be incurred at the date of conversion of the PCT application to national applications (30 months after the filing date of the British application.. The fees for an EPC Application mentioned in the “immediate costs” of table 2 include some designation fees, although for a direct EPC application, these only become due shortly before the patent is granted. When the European Patent finally grants (3 - 5 years after filing or conversion to an EPC application), it will be necessary to convert to national Patents in the designated EPC countries and to pay the national filing fees and translation costs. These costs are included in the figures shown in Table 2. The attached Tables show respectively, the procedural steps of the three routes, the approximate costs for the routes. Table 1 shows the approximate time scale in months for main events that are likely to incur expense, measured from the priority date (i.e. date of filing of the first British Application). Referring to Table 1, under the PCT route a single application is filed and all 169 countries are automatically designated. The initial filing costs for a PCT application is shown in the column called “immediate costs” in Table 2. Referring to the centre column of Table 1, this shows a typical National route. Some countries do not carry out the substantive examination stage. In these countries the application is accepted, subject to checking for formalities, in the form as filed and the time to obtain a granted patent is relatively short and the average cost is lower than for those that carry out substantive examination. Under the PCT, an International Search is carried out. When the results of the search are known, one can then decide whether to convert the International Application to National Patent Applications in those countries designated at the outset. One of the advantages of the PCT route is that one can have an international preliminary examination carried out based on the international search. If one is successful in overcoming the objections raised at the international examination stage, one obtains effectively a “bundle” of examined applications that can then be converted to national patent applications in one or more of the 169 countries. Each country treats the converted application as if it had been filed in that country right from the start, and may refuse or grant a patent under the national law. Electing to convert to National filings in one or more of the 169 countries or to a European application will incur the “immediate” costs in each country as shown in Table 2.
© Keith Leaman Ltd 2006, 2007 Electing to convert to National filings in one or more of the 169 countries or converting to a European application will incur the “immediate” costs in each country as shown in the following table, where o = No cost and n = likely cost involved
o = No cost
n = likely
cost involved
An advantage of the PCT route is that one can defer payment of national costs until one has a good idea from the search results if worthwhile patent cover is likely to be obtained. Another important point is that all the countries of the PCT, (currently 169) are included from the start. The national routes incur expenses of filing, prosecution, granting and publication costs. Each country deals with the matter in isolation from the others. Therefore, under the national routes, one may have to conduct exactly the same prosecution or use the same arguments in different countries, suffering the problems of translation costs and multiple lawyers’ charges. Under the national routes your patents may be refused and you could incur substantial costs before abandoning the patent application. For the PCT and EPC, a single British attorney may handle the prosecution up to the stage of converting to national applications or patents, thus minimising costs. Under the EPC and PCT the scope of protection is identical, or nearly so, in all countries, whereas it can vary in different countries under the national procedure. A disadvantages of the EPC is that if the application is rejected you lose protection in all EPC countries. A further disadvantage is that third parties can oppose the grant of a European patent during the 9 months following publication of the grant of the patent. Under the PCT and national routes you may still be able to get limited protection in some countries, and not in others. Some countries have oppositions others do not. The patents, irrespective of the route used to obtain them, must be renewed annually in most countries. The maximum life of the patent varies from country to country, but in most countries it is 20 years. The renewal costs are not included in the figures shown in Table 2. Providing the patent Application is not withdrawn, the application as originally filed will be published throughout the world approximately 18 months after filing the first British application in the form as originally filed.
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