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| Subject: European Patent Convention Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:01 pm | |
| The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention (EPC), is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted. The term European patent is used to refer to patents granted under the European Patent Convention. However, after grant a European patent is not a unitary right, but a group of essentially independent nationally-enforceable, nationally-revocable patents,[1] subject to central revocation or narrowing as a group pursuant to two types of unified, post-grant procedures: a time-limited opposition procedure, which can be initiated by any person except the patent proprietor, and limitation and revocation procedures, which can be initiated by the patent proprietor only. The EPC provides a legal framework for the granting of European patents,[2] via a single, harmonized procedure before the European Patent Office. A single patent application, in one language,[3] may be filed at the European Patent Office at Munich,[4] at its branches at The Hague[4] or Berlin[5] or at a national patent office of a Contracting State, if the national law of the State so permits.[6] There is currently no single, centrally enforceable, European Union-wide patent. Since the 1970s, there has been concurrent discussion towards the creation of a Community patent in the European Union. In May 2004 however, this has led to a stalemate. peony flowerno credit student loans |
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