European Patent

A patent issued by the European Patent Office (EPO) pursuant to the European Patent Convention. A European Patent is not a single European Patent (proposals for a so called “single patent” have been under consideration for more than two decades), but rather a bundle of nascent patent rights for those countries the applicant has designated (indicated by two letter codes on the patent cover page.) When the applicant completes a process of converting the patent into national rights, which varies from member state to member state, it effectively has a national patent in each member state.

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