Along with smaller European Union regulatory agencies, European
patent law includes national patent laws, the European Patent
Convention of 1973, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, WTA’s
Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights and the Patent Law Treaty. For any patents that are
involved in the European states, patents must be obtained from
national patent offices or through a patent prosecution process in
the European Patent Office. Patents obtained in one European state
do not make the patent enforceable in the entire European Union.
Patents distributed for the entire region must be obtained from a
separate office governing the Union, not simply a state. In
Germany, Austria and Spain, utility models are also available;
these have shorter terms than traditional patents.
To file a patent application, proper paperwork must be filed at
a national patent office or the European Patent Office.
International applications must be obtained through the Patent
Cooperation Treaty. After filing with this office, the patent will
undergo a process and then be enacted in the country or countries
specified. There are some exceptions to nationalization of patents
in several countries. Cyprus, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy,
Latvia and Ireland, among others, do not allow nationalization of
international patents. To obtain a patent in these countries, a
national patent must be sought separately. Before attempting to
file an international patent, it is important to check the European
country’s laws where the patent will be used. If the patent will be
effective in more than one country, it may be necessary to file
several individual national patents for those countries that do not
accept international patents. Since the national patents are more
restricted, they must be obtained through the European Patent
Office. Community patents are expected to be a thing of the future.
While none are currently in effect in European states, expectations
of these patents are expected to surface in the near future.
Community patents would result in a single unitary patent.
The Strasbourg Convention provisions made patent law fairly
uniform throughout different European states. The TRIP Agreement
also had effects on the uniformity of laws. There are still some
difficulties in interpretations through different countries in
Europe. For example, with infringement and validity aspects, there
are several differences between some national laws. To illustrate
this, in Germany infringement and validity are decided by different
jurisdictions, the United Kingdom’s court system that determines
validity also determines infringement.
