Filing a European Patent application: Cabinet Chaillot - French and European attorneys for patents, trademarks and designs

To file a European patent application, the following elements are required

Applicant(s)

for a legal entity: legal name, legal form, nationality and address ;
for a natural person: name, first names, nationality and address ;
if there are several inventors: names, first names, nationalities and addresses of all the inventors.
The designation of inventor(s) can be filed within a 16-month period from the filing date or if a priority has been claimed, from the priority date.
When the applicant is not the inventor or is not the sole inventor, a statement must be provided, indicating the origin of the right to the patent by the applicant : as the employer of the inventor(s), by an agreement for example relating to an assignment or to a search agreement (with indication of the date of the agreement)

Specification, claims, and abstract

We can draft the abstract if it is not provided, which can be filed in one of the three official languages of the EPO (English, French, German).

Claim fees must be paid for each claim after the 15th one, we can study the set of claims in order to reduce the cost for filing.

States

The payment of the official fees for the designation states, extension states and validation states can be done as from the filing and at the latest within 6 months from the mention of the publication of the Search Report in the European patent bulletin.
Regarding the designation states : for applications filed as from 01/04/2009, all the designation states are designated by the payment of a sole official fee of 500 €

Priority(ies)

country, filing date, filing number of the claimed prior application;
an official copy of the priority document (which can be still validly filed within a 16-month period as from the priority date) or a DAS code.
if the priority application is in the name of another person, an assignment of the priority right is requested together with its translation. This assignment can still be filed within a 16-month period from the priority date.
We also need a copy of the results of any search carried out by the authority with which the priority application was filed (except for AT, JP, GB, US, KR, DK, ES, CH).

Request for examination

A request for examination is filed at the filing. The payment of the examination fee can be done at the time of filing and up to six months from the mention of the publication of the European search report in the European Patent Bulletin.

Earlier Search Report

When you already have a search report prepared by EPO and relating to the application from which the priority is claimed, it should be provided in order to possibly benefit from a total or partial refund of the European Search fee.

CABINET CHAILLOT

PATENTS TRADEMARKS DESIGNS

French Patent & Trademark Attorneys - European Patent Attorneys - Representatives before EUIPO