The patent offices of most European countries signed an agreement to unify their procedures, by virtue of which an invention for which protection is sought in various European countries may be granted through one European patent application, rather than carrying out all the procedures separately in each one of the countries involved. The application is therefore processed at the European Patent Office (EPO) in English, French or German, where it is analysed and examined, before experts determine whether or not the application meets the requirements of novelty [link] and inventive step [link] in order to be granted.
Once the EPO has granted the patent, it must be validated in each one of the national patent offices in the European countries that signed the EPO convention, in which the applicant seeks definitive protection, which will accept the EPO's conclusions.
The applicant would then have to pay annual rates in each of these countries. In some countries, such as Spain and Italy, the document must also be translated into the national language in order to obtain said definitive protection.
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Please consult the countries involved in the EPO in the figure attached. You will also find details by visiting the EPO website
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