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Divisional Patent Applications
A divisional patent application, also called divisional application or simply divisional, is a type of patent application that contains subject-matter from a previously filed application, the previously filed application being its parent application. While a divisional application is filed later than the parent application, it retains its parent's filing date, and will generally claim the same priority. Divisional applications are generally used in cases where the parent application may lack unity of invention; that is, the parent application describes more than one invention and the applicant is required to split the parent into one or more divisional applications each claiming only a single invention. The ability to file divisional applications in cases of lack of unity of invention is required by Article 4G of the Paris Convention. Practice by jurisdiction The practice and procedure of filing a divisional patent application vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In most countr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent Application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claim (patent), claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and related correspondence. It is the combination of the document and its processing within the administrative and legal framework of the patent office. To obtain the grant of a patent, a person, either legal or natural, must file an application at a patent office with the jurisdiction to grant a patent in the geographic area over which coverage is required. This is often a national patent office, but may be a regional body, such as the European Patent Office. Once the patent specification complies with the laws of the office concerned, a patent may be granted for the invention described and claimed by the specification. The process of "negotiating" or "arguing" with a patent office for the grant of a patent, and interaction with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filing Date
This is a list of legal terms relating to patents and patent law. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention claimed therein, but a territorial right to exclude others from commercially exploiting the invention, granted to an inventor or their successor in rights in exchange to a public disclosure of the invention. A Abandonment Abandonment refers to the cessation of a patent application’s progress due to the applicant’s failure to make a bona fide attempt to advance the patent application to a final conclusion. Abandonment in patent prosecution can occur either voluntarily or involuntarily: * Voluntary abandonment (also called “express abandonment” or “formal abandonment”) occurs when the applicant explicitly communicates their intent to withdraw the application from consideration. * Involuntary abandonment happens when the applicant fails to meet specific requirements, such as failing to respond to an office action or failing to paying required fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priority Right
In patent law, industrial design law, and trademark law, a priority right or right of priority is a time-limited right, triggered by the first filing of an application for a patent, an industrial design or a trademark respectively. The priority right allows the claimant to file a subsequent application in another country for the same invention, design, or trademark effective as of the date of filing the first application. When filing the subsequent application, the applicant must claim the priority of the first application in order to make use of the right of priority. The right of priority belongs to the applicant or his ''successor in title''. The period of priority, i.e., the period during which the priority right exists, is usually 6 months for industrial designs and trademarks and 12 months for patents and utility models. The period of priority is often referred to as the priority year for patents and utility models. In patent law, when a priority is validly claimed, the date ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unity Of Invention
In most patent laws, unity of invention is a formal administrative requirement that must be met for a patent application to proceed to grant. An issued patent can claim only one invention or a group of closely related inventions. The purpose of this requirement is administrative as well as financial. The requirement serves to preclude the possibility of filing one patent application for several inventions, while paying only one set of fees (filing fee, search fee, examination fee, renewal fees, and so on). Unity of invention also makes the classification of patent documents easier. The WIPO and the EPO determine the unity of claims in a patent based on the presence of a common "special technical feature", which is usually equated with inventive step. On the other hand, the USPTO uses for its domestic applications a very different approach ("independent or distinct"), which is based on the fields of use for each claim, justifying this approach by a "burden on the examiner" to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris Convention For The Protection Of Industrial Property
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on 20 March 1883, is one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. The convention is still in force with substantive provisions of the Convention fall into three main categories: national treatment, priority right and common rules. Contents National treatment According to Articles 2 and 3 of this treaty, juristic and natural persons who are either national of or domiciled in a state party to the Convention shall, as regards the protection of industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union, the advantages that their respective laws grant to nationals. In other words, when an applicant files an application for a patent or a trademark in a foreign country member of the Union, the application receives the same treatment as if it came from a national of this foreign country. Furthermore, if the intell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Patent Organisation
The European Patent Organisation (sometimes abbreviated EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, one of the two organs of the organisation) is a public international intellectual property organisation, organisation created in 1977 by its contracting states to grant patents in Europe under the European Patent Convention (EPC) of 1973.Gower's Report on Intellectual Property , para 1.34 The European Patent Organisation has its seat (legal entity), seat at Munich, Germany, and has administrative and financial autonomy. The organisation is independent from the European Union, and has as member states all 27 Member state of the European Union, EU member states along with 12 other European states. The evo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Patent Convention
The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted. The term ''European patent'' is used to refer to patents granted under the European Patent Convention. However, a European patent is not a unitary right, but a group of essentially independent nationally enforceable, nationally revocable patents, subject to central revocation or narrowing as a group pursuant to two types of unified, post-grant procedures: a time-limited opposition procedure before the European Patent Office, opposition procedure, which can be initiated by any person except the patent proprietor, and limitation and revocation procedures, which can be initiated by the patent proprietor only. The EPC provides a legal framework for the granting of European patents, via a single, harmonised p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appeal Procedure Before The European Patent Office
The European Patent Convention (EPC), the multilateral treaty instituting the legal system according to which European patents are granted, contains provisions allowing a party to appeal a decision issued by a first instance department of the European Patent Office (EPO). For instance, a decision of an Examining Division refusing to grant a European patent application may be appealed by the applicant. The appeal procedure before the European Patent Office is under the responsibility of its Boards of Appeal, which are institutionally independent within the EPO. Overview Decisions of the first instance departments of the European Patent Office (EPO) can be appealed, i.e. challenged, before the Boards of Appeal of the EPO, in a judicial procedure (proper to an administrative court), as opposed to an administrative procedure. These boards act as the final instances in the granting and opposition procedures before the EPO. The Boards of Appeal have been recognised as courts, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amendments Under The European Patent Convention
Article 123 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) relates to the amendments under the EPC, i.e. the amendments to a European patent application or patent, and notably the conditions under which they are allowable. In particular, prohibits adding subject-matter going beyond the content of the application as filed, while prohibits an extension of the scope of protection by amendment after grant. In addition, limits the types of amendments that can be done during Opposition procedure before the European Patent Office, opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO), and relates to the correction of errors in documents filed with the EPO. Background The EPC provides that an applicant may in principle amend the documents constituting their European patent application after filing, as it is considered that the applicant may not have a full picture of the prior art at the time when the application is drafted and filed with the EPO. Article 123(1) EPC: Procedural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
G 1/05 And G 1/06
G 1/05 and G 1/06 are decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) that were issued on 28 June 2007 and answer questions relating to divisional applications under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The two decisions were published in the Official Journal of the EPO in May 2008. Background Article 76(1), second sentence, EPC states that a divisional application :"may be filed only in respect of subject-matter which does not extend beyond the content of the earlier application as filed; in so far as this provision is complied with, the divisional application shall be deemed to have been filed on the date of filing of the earlier application and shall have the benefit of any right to priority." Questions Two similar sets of legal questions have been referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal and have been considered by the Board in consolidated proceedings. In case T 39/03, Technical Board of Appeal 3.4.02 referred the following qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuing Patent Application
Under United States patent law, a continuing patent application is a patent application that follows, and claims priority to, an earlier-filed patent application. A continuing patent application may be one of three types: a continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part. Although continuation and continuation-in-part applications are generally available in the U.S. only, divisional patent applications are also available in other countries, as such availability is required under Article 4G of the Paris Convention. Early history From 1838 to 1861, inventors could file patent applications on improvements to their inventions. These were published as "additional improvement patents" and were given numbers preceded by "A.I.". About 300 of these patents were issued. Current law Under the law in the U.S., inventors may file several different types of patent applications to cover new improvements to their inventions or to cover different aspects of their inventions. These types of pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
