European patents with legal effect for the Czech Republic
European Patent Applications, and European Patents with effect for the Czech Republic
The rights resulting from European patents and European Patent Applications with effect for the Czech Republic, and handling these rights, are specifically amended by Law No. 527/1990 Coll. (pdf, 284 kB) on inventions and improvement proposals, mainly in §35a - §35g. The Patent granted by the European Patent Office is just as effective as the national patent. However, the owner of the European Patent must hand in to the ÚPV (Industrial Property Office) a translation of the patent specification in Czech within the statutory limitations. Should he fail to do so, the European Patent is considered to be invalid in the Czech Republic from the very beginning (§35c, sect. 1 – 5 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.).
To maintain the European Patent, the owner is obliged to pay a maintenance fee, according to Law No. 173/2002 Coll. (pdf, 115 kB) The administration fees pertaining to the European Patents are listed in Law No. 634/2004 Coll.(pdf, 253 kB).
Making the translation concerning the patent claims of the European Patent Application available
Making the translation of the patent claims available is amended by §35a of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.(pdf, 284 kB).
If the applicant meets the statutory conditions of the European Patent Application, the Industrial Property Office makes available to the public the translation of the patent claims into Czech, and announces this event in the Bulletin. Following this publication, the Applicant can claim reasonable compensations from those who made use of the subject of the application, if the patent granted by the European Patent Office is effective in the Czech Republic. The ÚPV (Industrial Property Office) prefers the translation to be presented in two issues.
The following conditions must explicitly be met to enable the ÚPV to make available the translation of the patent claims of the published patent application according to §35a, Sect. 4 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.:
- The European Patent Application is effective in the Czech Republic (designation CZ)
- The European Patent Office has already published the European Patent Application
- An authorized person has presented the translation of the patent claims into Czech
- The administration fee for publishing the translation has been paid (Law. No. 634/2004 Coll. (pdf, 253 kB))
To present the translation of the claims, we recommend using the following form. It is possible to use the same form for presenting the corrected translation of the patent claims (§35a, Sect. 6 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.).
Publishing the translation of the European Patent Specification
The patent granted by the European Patent Office is just as effective as the national patent. However, the owner of the European Patent must hand in to the ÚPV (Industrial Property Office) a translation of the patent specification in Czech within the statutory limitations. Should he fail to do so, the European Patent is considered to be invalid in the Czech Republic from the very beginning (§35c, sect. 1 – 5 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.).
The following conditions must explicitly be met to enable the ÚPV to publish the translation of the European Patent according to §35c, Sect. 2 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.:
- Information concerning the granting of the European Patent has already been published in the European Patent Bulletin
- The European Patent Office granted the European Patent with effect for the Czech Republic (designation CZ)
- An authorized person presented the translation of the patent specification into Czech (§35c Sect. 2, §70 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.)
- The administration fee for publishing the translation has been paid (Law. No. 634/2004 Coll.)
- The translation has been presented within 3 months following the date of announcement concerning the granting of the European Patent in the European Patent Bulletin, or eventually in the additional limit of 3 months (§35c Sect. 2 and 3 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll.)
- The address of the representative in the Czech Republic has been presented, where the official announcements concerning the patent will be posted (in case the patent owner’s place of business is not in the Czech Republic).
To present the translations of the patent specification(including the amended or limited or corrected version of the European Patent Specification), we recommended using the following form. For presenting the limited version the European Patent Specification is possible using the variant of form for the amended version, provided the notice is comleted by a phrase "limited translation". The ÚPV (Industrial Property Office) prefers the translation to be presented in two issues.
In case there have been changes in the register data (e.g. change concerning the data of the owner, the transfer of rights, etc.) during the period between granting the patent and presenting the translation, then an approval must be sought to mark this fact in the Czech Register of European Patents, or eventually it is also necessary to pay an administrative fee, should such an application be paid for (see Records in the register and changes in the register data with the European Patents).
The Industrial Property Office as a mailing office for the European Patent Applications
According to §24 of Law No. 527/1990 Coll., the Office is a place where you can file the European Patent Application, according to an Agreement concerning the granting of European Patents, signed in Munich, on the 5 th October 1973 (European Patent Agreement); this does not apply in case of the divided European Patent Application, which must be filed directly at the European Patent Office. Detailed information concerning the European Patent Applications and filing them can be found in the chapter European Patent Applications.
Immediately after notification of granting the European Patent in the European Patent Bulletin, the ÚPV enters the European Patent into the Czech register of European Patents with the data entered into the European Patent Register kept by the European Patent Office. Marking the register data and the register data changes with European Patents with effect for the Czech Republic follows the same procedure as with the national patents, with the following exceptions:
If the European Patent Office changes the data in the European Patent Register with effect from the day preceding the date of notification of granting the European Patent in the European Patent Bulletin, and this change is not projected in the data the ÚPV receives from the European Patent Office, the ÚPV considers the application for change in the Czech Register of European Patents as an application for the correction of data, and the administrative fee for marking the changes into the register does not have to be paid, even in case the type of the marked change is to be paid for, according to the Law on administrative fees. To mark the change, the ÚPV only requires a manifestation of will (application) of the authorized person, supported by a copy of the European Patent Office notification of the registration of the change (EPO form 2544).
If the European Patent Office marks a new or a changed data entry (e.g. change, transfer, passage, licence, right of lien, etc.) with a European Patent in the European Patent Register, with effect from the date following the date of notification of granting the European Patent in the European Patent Bulletin, for the purposes of further proceedings at the European Patent Office (opposing the grant of a patent), this entry will only be marked into the Czech Register of European Patents upon the manifestation of will (application) of the authorized person. The application is considered in a similar manner as an application filed for the national patents. In case the application is to be paid for, according to the Law on administrative fees, then the administrative fee is required for marking the entry into the register. To mark this entry into the register, the ÚPV requires a manifestation of will (application) of the authorized person, supported by a copy of the European Patent Office notification of the registration of the change (EPO form 2544).
Paying the maintenance fee for keeping the European Patent valid
Paying the fee for keeping the European Patent valid (maintenance fee), including the amount of the maintenance fee is regulated by Law No. 173/2002 Coll. The owner of the European Patent (with effect for the Czech Republic) is the payer of the European Patent Maintenance Fee. The maintenance fee is paid without assessment for the individual seasons of the year when the European Patent is valid, with effect from the day of filing the European Patent Application with effect for the Czech Republic. The first maintenance fee for the European Patent is paid without assessment for the season following the season when the granting of the European Patent has been announced in the European Patent Bulletin. The maintenance fee can be duly paid no sooner than one year prior to its due date. Maintenance fee is paid in Czech crowns, via a bank transfer or in cash. It cannot be paid via duty stamps. The most common form of maintenance fee payments is via a cash payment in the ÚPV box office, or via bank transfer to the ÚPV account kept by the Czech National Bank.
When paying the maintenance fee for European Patents via a bank transfer to the ÚPV account, the following data must be stated:
1) Payment from a bank in the Czech Republic:
Account No. 35-21526001/0710
Constant symbol: 0308
Variable symbol: European Patent Number
2) Payment from a different bank (foreign)
Bank address: ČNB Praha, Na Příkopě 28, 115 03 Prague 1, Czech Republic
SWIFT: CNBA CZ PP
IBAN: CZ95 0710 0000 3500 2152 6001
Variable symbol: European Patent Number
When using the bank transfer to the ÚPV account (especially in case of a foreign currency account), it is necessary that the owner also covers eventual bank fees connected with the bank transfer. Detailed information concerning the identification of payments can be found in the chapter Stating Variable Symbols, and concerning the payments from abroad also in the chapter IBAN and SWIFT.
Federated Patent Register Service
Federated Patent Register (FePR). The Federated Register is a new section built into the European Patent Register that provides data on the legal status of an EP patent document in the national phase.
Federated Register Content page contains information on the content provided by the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic and other national patent offices currently integrated into the Federated Register.
National patent offices currently integrated into the Federated Register
CZ - Federated Petent Register Service
1. [CZ] Patent register
General information about the national patent register:
• Coverage: EP applications filed from January 1st 2002 designated to CZ
• Updating frequency: daily
•Availability of file inspection:No
• URL to National patent register: Online databases
• Availability of Deep linking to National Patent register from FRS: Yes
2. CONTENTS PROVIDED VIA FRS
| FRS data | Data provided | [CZ] - Contents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Status | Yes |
The following statuses are provided:
Request for EP validation pending: IPO CZ did not still received EP validation (EP translation into Czech language), thus, it has not been validated for CZ yet.
Appeal filed: IPO CZ has received an appeal (to any decision IPO CZ took. Nullity requested: IPO CZ has received a request for invalidating EP. The request has not been affirmed yet. Patent limited: invention description and/or patent claims have been limited on patent owner’s request. The proceedings were conducted at EPO. Patent maintained in amended form: invention description and/or patent claims have been limited on third party’s request. The proceedings were conducted at EPO.
Patent revoked: Already granted document that is annulled at request of third party, EPO or IPO CZ. Patent lapsed: Expired document – renewal fees were not paid. Patent expired: Expired document after 20 years of patent validity Patent surrendered: Patent proprietor surrendered the rights to the document, i.e. patent is no longer valid. Patent not in force: There are two reasons: Invalid document or EP ineffective from the outset
|
| 2 | Application No. | Yes |
IPO CZ displays its own application number format (based on the EP application number) with “CZ” in the front of it. CZYYYY-NNNNNN CZ: country code Example: CZ2008-829729, CZ2009-77 |
| 3 | Publication No. | Yes |
IPO CZ does not create its own subsequent national application or publication numbers to identify the EP rights at the national level. Therefore, IPO CZ provides ordinary EP publication numbers. EP: notifies the user this is an ordinary EP publication number Example: EP1581754, EP000005, EP1876420 |
| 4 | Proprietor | Yes | All proprietors are listed. In a link leading to IPO CZ website about particular EP all transfers of rights are reflected. |
| 5 | Invalidation date | Yes | "Invalidation date" means the date of invalidation coming into force or the date of execution of the request. More info in search-page tooltips or Quick help page. According to FePR Quick Help, "The invalidation date reflects the date when the decision on the invalidation was taken". Thus, this is the date when IPO CZ made a record of it in database. Since IPO CZ’s registers are updated daily, the invalidation date and the register-last-updated date correspond. The invalidation date can be recorded quite long time after the real (official) invalidation date. It is so because a proprietor can supply the translation of granted patent at most 6 months after the date of granting – according to Czech patent law (based on European Patent Convention, Article 65). |
| 6 | Not in force since | Yes |
Date is provided for following statuses: Patent not validated: where the “Not in force since” date corresponds to the date of filing / priority day |
| 7 | Renewal fees last paid | Yes | Renewal fees last paid: date of last payment. Latest annual fee paid: number (in years) of annual fees already paid. Why invalidation date often precedes Renewal-fees-last-paid date? It is a very common situation. EPO can also designate invalidation retrospectively and NPO might be informed about this event even a few months after the invalidation. Note: All fees paid in favour of already invalidated patents will be returned by EPO. E.g. Application number EP02021072, IPO CZ was informed about invalidation on December 25th 2011 (Register-last-updated column). However, invalidation was already performed on August 2nd 2011. |
| 8 | Register last updated | Yes | This date corresponds to the last update of a particular record, i.e. this is the entry date of the last item in proceedings of the record in national patent register. |
| 9 | SPC | No | For SPC, IPO CZ provides one legal status:
SPC in force: Patent itself already expired, however its SPC is in force |
3. CONTACT DETAILS
Lukas Hyks
Phone: +420 220 383 333
Mail: helpdesk@upv.cz (Subject: "FePR")
Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic
Antonína Čermáka 2a
Prague 6
160 00
Czech Republic
4. RELATED LINKS
Federated Patent Register Quick Help
Czech national database search (English)
Links to the Chamber of Patent Attorneys and The Czech Bar Association
Information can be found at the following websites:
