http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/national-law.html
Content reproduced from the Website of the European Patent Office as permitted by their terms of use.
18th edition, October 2017
With its “National law relating to the EPC” booklet, the EPO aims to provide European patent applicants and proprietors, and all others concerned with the European patent system, with a concise guide to the most important provisions and requirements of the relevant national law in the EPC contracting states, extension states and validation states.
Content description
The
booklet is essentially a guide to the law and practice of the EPC contracting
states, extension and validation states applicable to European patent
applications and patents. The synopses given in the following tables have been
prepared in close co-operation with the authorities of the respective states
responsible for the protection of industrial property.
The
tables have been drawn up with great care, but their completeness and accuracy
cannot be guaranteed. They are very concise, focusing on the essentials, and
are therefore no substitute for consulting the national legal sources
themselves and seeking professional advice where appropriate. National patent
law and practice are not static; they are changing and developing all the time.
Users of the booklet may therefore wish to consult the official publications of
the contracting states to make sure that the legal provisions summarised in the
tables – and especially the fee amounts given – are still up to date. The EPO
will continue to provide regular updates in its Official Journal about legal
developments in the contracting states. It also updates the online version of
this booklet whenever it learns of any changes at national level.
Available formats & updating
The
most up-to-date version of the “National law relating to the EPC”
publication is thus the HTML file, which is optimised for online use. This HTML
version is regularly updated; changes made since the edition in the printable
PDF file can be viewed by checking the “Show modifications” box in
the top right hand corner. Insertions are displayed with a green background and
deletions in red strikethrough font. For sections in which no changes have been
made, the check box is greyed out.
The
PDF file contains the latest printable edition (18th edition, October 2017).
This is the best version for offline browsing, including full-text search
functionality.
An
updated list of current bank accounts of national patent offices (for paying
EP-related renewal and other fees) has been extracted from Part VIII of the
booklet and is available as a PDF file.
A
print version of the booklet is not available.