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Introduction
European Patent System (EPS) is a very complex system
and even experts in the field of Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) face ample difficulties in dealing with EPS
related queries. But in spite of the complexities
involved it has an ever expanding market of 500 million
people and an economy of approximately $18.5 trillion
GDP. 1
The birth of EPS took long back in 1949 when French
senator Henri Longchambon proposed the creation of
European Patent Office in front of the “Council Of
Europe”. The first genuine step towards forming a patent
governing body in Europe was put forward in 1973, when
Belgium, West-Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Switzerland, and the UK called for a multilateral treaty
whose core objective was to grant European patents and
form a uniform patent system in Europe. In the same
year, the “Munich Diplomatic Conference for the setting
up of a European System for the Grant of
Patents” witnessed the signing of convention and the
European Patent Convention (EPC) was born. As the
convention was signed in Munich it is also sometimes
called as “The Munich Convention”. Subsequently, the EPC
set up the European patent office and registered its
first patent application in 1978. At present, the
convention is constituted by 36 member European
countries. The EPC follows a harmonized process of
filing a single patent application at the EPO in Munich
or at one of its branches at The Hague or Berlin.2
EPC in its article 52(1) states that “European patent
shall be granted for any inventions, in all fields of
technology, providing that they are new or involve
an inventive step, and are susceptible of industrial
application.” Article 52(1) constitute the fundamentals
terms which govern the inclusion or exclusion of any
invention under EPS. Articles 52(2), 52(3) and 53 of EPC
state the indications on exclusions on the basis of
nature of patent system or on the basis of policy.2
All the regulations published in the European Patent
Office (EPO) gazette, are strictly followed by the
member countries of EPC. However, countries who are not
the member of EPC can also enjoy a similar status by
signing an “Extension Agreement” with EPO. The
“Extension Agreement” comprises of a co-operation
agreement which facilitates the grant of patent to
extend to the non member countries after the payment of
additional fees and completion of some specific
formalities. On this date, countries like Albania,
Bosnia and Serbia enjoy the privilege of “Extension
Agreement”.
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