European Patent

Dear Angelica,

you can already apply for a European Patent that is centrally examined at the European Patent Office. What is yet to come is a patent with a unitary effect in all EU member countries (or to be more precise in all EU member countries where the unitary patent has effect). At present, after a patent is granted by the European Patent Office, it is necessary to validate the patent in each member country that is of interest to you. Still the cost is less than prosecuting the patent application in each country independently.

I hope this helps. Please let me know in case of questions.

In case it is useful, there is information about the current European patent system on our website here: http://mewburn.com/patents/european-patents/european-patents-the-basics and about the proposed Unitary Patent here: http://mewburn.com/library/information-sheets/the-european-unitary-patent