Introduction
A legal title or licit title which grants rights to its holder, in a specific country for some time period & that which stops the 3rd parties or infringers from exploiting the invention for commercial purposes is known as patent. A single European procedure has been established by the EPC for giving patent rights on the basis of single application & they also made a uniform body of substantive patent law which is made in such a manner that provides cheap, easy, and strong protection for inventions made by people in the contracting states. You can look for more information on European patent here. The contracting states are: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.
Protection for Products
In every contracting state in which the patent right is granted, a European patent will ensure its proprietor that the similar rights would be given by national patent which is given in that state. If the subject-matter is a process, then security is granted or extended to the products directly that is obtained by that process. Any kind of violation of European patent is directly dealt by the national law. As per article 64, a European patent which published and its application gives provisional protection, which is not less than that discussed by a contracting state for a national application that has been published & it should also include the right to reasonable compensation in any circumstances of wrongful infringement.
Provisions of Art.67 and Art. 63
As per article 67, the normal term for a European patent is 20 years as from the date of filing. Also, there is a term that, annual renewal fees are duly paid. Patents remains in force for a term that is maximum. Then, as per article 63(2) – it gives out the circumstances in which the term of the patent can be lengthened or longer term may be granted. The extension can be done by means of SPC (supplementary protection certificate) is intended mainly for medicinal plants protection product patents. In which, the administrative approval procedures takes so long that the patents useful life is diminished. Besides all of that, European patent can also be efficacious in some countries that do not have acceded to the EPC validation and extension states. At present, these are Herzegovina and Montenegro and Bosnia, these are the extension states. Next, are the validation states like Morocco, the Republic of Moldova, Tunisia and Cambodia. Montenegro was hoped to become an EPC contracting state in the year 2022.
Special Agreements & Art 87 & 89
The EPC made a special agreement within the meaning of Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property. It would mean that in particular the rules of Paris convention on claiming importance and the national treatment principle also are applied in the European Procedure and European applications. Moreover, as per article 87 to 89, all the EPC contracting states are member of the World Trade Organizations (WTO), the pertinent provisions of the TRIPS Agreement (specially on trade connected aspects of IPR) are implemented in the revised EPC. Plus, further the EPC constitutes a regional patent treaty which comes within the meaning of Article 45(1) PCT, which means European Patents can be given on the basis of international application that is filed under the PCT. The European PCT guide deals with this filing route to take patent protection in Europe. You can also check EPO website for more details.
