Filing date
The filing date of a patent or a patent application is the day on which the documents of a patent application that are sufficient in content for the granting of a filing date and which are not a divisional application or "phase" from a PCT application were first submitted to a competent authority in a permissible manner .
overview
In order to make intangible rights such as patents (and similarly utility models , trademarks and designs ) as legally secure as possible, formal procedures were created. The filing date of an industrial property right is the day on which the relevant formal and content-related information on the industrial property right, compiled for such proceedings, is available to the authority for the first time. The information includes content, details of the person entitled, and an indication that a property right is desired. In this way, the questions "who", "what" and "when" are clearly defined for the further procedure.
Legal meaning
The filing date of a patent has numerous legal implications.
Substantive turning points
Content of the application : After the filing date, the content of a patent application can no longer be expanded. The patent can only be designed within the framework of what was filed with the Office on the filing date.
Relationship to other patents and publications : The filing date determines the "age" of a patent or contributes to it via the priority right and thus determines how the property right is in relation to other property rights and publications. For patents, the filing date helps define the state of the art for the patent application.
Relationship to non-public uses : The filing date as the age of a patent is also relevant to whether prior use by others is made patent-free by a prior use right .
Deadline trigger
Term : Patents have a maximum term that begins on the filing date.
Publication : The date of publication of a patent application can also depend on the filing date.
Annual fees : For patents annual or renewal fees to pay. Their due date depends on the filing date.
Request for examination : For German patent applications, the request for examination must be submitted no later than seven years after the filing date .
Priority year : If the patent application is a first filing of features of an invention with a patent office, the filing date triggers the course of the priority year of the internal priority or in accordance with the Paris Convention .
Requirement for the allocation of a filing date
Because of its importance, the filing date is precisely defined in many patent law regulations. In the German Patent Act , the relevant provisions can be found in Section 35 PatG, in the European Patent Convention Article 80 EPC and Rule 40 EPC. This means that content-related provisions have been made for the allocation of a filing date. In addition, the general principles of procedural law apply (written form or electronic legal communication, responsible body ...).
Demarcation
The application date of a patent or a patent application must not be confused with various other dates.
Priority date: Under certain conditions, a patent / application can claim the filing date of an earlier patent application as the priority date, based on its filing date . Conditions are, among other things, that the two rights are identical in terms of content and that the claimed priority date is not older than one year from the filing date of the more recent application.
Filing date: The filing date is the day on which the physical (or digital data) documents for an application are received by a competent office. Often this is also the filing date. But in the case of divisional applications or "phases" from a PCT application , these applications are given the filing date and priority date of the previous parent application or the PCT application.
The publication date is (English "publication date") the date on which a previously filed patent application published official hand in full and in the patent registers is available. This is necessary at least a few weeks after the registration date.
The grant date (English "date of grant") is the day on which a previously agreed grant does not take effect. It is the day on which the notice that the patent has been granted is officially published. The date of issue is necessarily after the filing date, sometimes just a few weeks, sometimes years later.
Filing date of utility models
The provisions governing the filing date of utility models are largely the same as those relating to patents.
Filing date of trademarks and designs
The filing date requirements for trademarks and designs are similar to those for patents.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ see disclosure (patent law) and § 38 PatG last sentence and Article 123 (2) EPC
- ↑ see § 3 ff PatG and Article 52 ff EPC
- ↑ see § 12 PatG
- ↑ see § 16 PatG
- ↑ see Section 31 (2) PatG and Section 32
- ↑ see § 17 PatG
- ↑ see Section 44 (2) PatG
- ↑ see § 40 PatG
- ↑ European Patent Convention: Article 80 . European Patent Office. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- ↑ European Patent Convention: Rule 40 . European Patent Office. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
