European patent
Protect your invention
in 38 member states of the European Patent Convention.
The monopoly belongs to the first to file the patent
Not the first to invent!
It’s crucial to have the best possible protection to enter the market or consolidate your leadership position
In particular, it’s imperative for start-ups to file a European patent to protect their innovations before unveiling them to the public and seeking funding.
Protect your invention in Europe
A patent is a national industrial property right.
By registering a patent only in France, your monopoly is limited to French territory.
A European patent protects your invention in 38 countries simultaneously. This goes far beyond the European Union to include Great Britain, Switzerland, Monaco, Turkey and Morocco!
With a single, simplified procedure before a single examiner!
Key steps for filing your European patent
Patentability study
To find out whether your invention is patentable in Europe.
Drafting the patent application
By one of our accredited patent attorneys, specialized in your technical field.
Filing a patent application with the European Patent Office (EPO)
Our administrative department takes care of everything!
Expertise and transparency with YesMyPatent
Our bilingual French/English European patent attorneys and administrative department will support you throughout the European patent protection process.
The transparency of our fees means you can control the costs of your procedure, from filing to granting your European patent.
More information
The European patent is a title granted by theEuropean Patent Office (EPO) for member countries of the European Patent Organisation.
When the European application is granted, the applicant must then select the countries in which he wishes to “validate” the protection of his patent, as no patent will ultimately be in force in the non-selected countries.
To date, 38 states are members of the EPO:
- Albania,
- Austria,
- Belgium,
- Bulgaria,
- Switzerland,
- Chypre,
- Czech Republic,
- Germany,
- Denmark,
- Estonia,
- Spain,
- Finland,
- France,
- United Kingdom,
- Greece,
- Croatia,
- Hungary,
- Ireland,
- Iceland,
- Italy,
- Liechtenstein,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Latvia,
- Monaco,
- Northern Macedonia,
- Painted,
- Netherlands,
- Norway,
- Poland,
- Portugal,
- Romania,
- Serbia,
- Sweden,
- Slovenia,
- Slovakia,
- San Marino,
- Turkey.
In 2023, unitary patent came into force, enabling one-off validation in 18 of these countries (which must be EU members) if the patent holder so wishes.
This project, which began over 30 years ago, now includes the following countries:
- Germany,
- Austria,
- Belgium,
- Bulgaria,
- Denmark,
- Estonia,
- Finland,
- France,
- Italy,
- Latvia,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Painted,
- Netherlands,
- Portugal,
Romania, - Slovenia,
- Sweden.
The UK and Switzerland, for example, are not included, and it will be necessary to go through the historic system of national validation as for the other non-signatory countries. For the latter, official fees, translations and disbursements must be paid to the foreign colleague.
A provisional provisional patent is a deposit that enables you to date an invention quickly. If this provisional filing is not converted into a regular patent within 12 months, or does not serve as a priority application for a new filing, then the applicant loses his prior art date.
The filing of a provisional application has been possible in France since the Pacte Act came into force, and has historically existed in the United States as a “provisional patent”. A contrario, there is no official mechanism for provisional deposit at European level.
However, the solution is to file a European patent application without paying the filing and search fees required to begin examination. The application will thus be officially rejected by the European Patent Office, but a filing date and number will have been granted, which will act as a date-taking and thus be equivalent to a “provisional” filing.
To file a patent application in Europe, it can be drafted in any of the Office’s three languages:
- French,
- English,
- German.
There is no need to translate your French application into English to file it with the EPO.
