Patent office
A patent office is an authority granting a natural or legal person has a right to intellectual property protection and a brand name in the form of a patent.
- 3.1 Europe ( EPO)
- 3.2 Eurasia ( EAPO ), Africa ( ARIPO, OAPI ), Asia ( Gulf Cooperation Council )
History
The term patent is derived from the Latin patens ( open letter, certificate). The first patent law in the modern sense was adopted in 1474 in Venice, followed by the " Statute of Monopolies " in Great Britain ( 1623) and France ( 1787).
In the course of industrialization, the demand for a protection of the trade in England was becoming more urgent in 1800. With the granting of patents, this requirement was implemented. On the one hand it should motivate inventors to present their inventions to the public and to provide in their services, on the other hand it should grant inventors protection of their trade from abuse by others.
National patent offices
Germany
The German Patent and Trade Mark Office ( DPMA; formerly German Patent Office ) based in Munich and services in Jena and Berlin, is responsible for German patents. The DPMA also performs the registration of utility models, trademarks, industrial designs (Designs), semiconductor topographies and Supplementary Protection Certificates.
In the GDR there was from 1950-1990 the Office for Inventions and Patents of the GDR, which merged in 1990 with the German Patent Office.
Austria
The Austrian Patent Office is the national central authority for Intellectual Property Law in Austria, headquartered in Vienna. It is responsible for patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs (Designs), semiconductor topography and protection certificate applications. More offers the Patent Office to the public of information on intellectual property rights, and training.
Switzerland
The Patent Office for Switzerland ( and Liechtenstein, which forms a unified protected area with Switzerland on the basis of the Swiss- Liechtenstein Patent Treaty of 22 December 1978 ) is the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in Bern ( Stauffacher Strasse 65 ). Notwithstanding the legal position in Germany and Austria Switzerland does not use patterns. Enrolled in the IGE patents registered since 1996, without exception, without preliminary examination as to novelty and inventive step ( non-obviousness ) and can therefore always be checked in a judicial proceeding to its protective ability. However, there is the possibility of a voluntary search of the prior art.
Regional Patent Offices
Europe ( EPO)
The European Patent Office (EPO ) is an institution of the European Patent Organisation, which was established by the European Patent Convention of 5 October 1973. The Patent Office has its headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague, offices in Berlin -Kreuzberg and Vienna and an EU liaison office in Brussels. The official languages are English, German and French.
Eurasia ( EAPO ), Africa ( ARIPO, OAPI ), Asia ( Gulf Cooperation Council )
The Eurasian Patent Office ( EAPA ) is an organ of the Eurasian Patent Organization, which was founded by the Eurasian Patent Convention of 12 March 1993. The Convention is currently nine former Republics of the former Soviet Union effectively (not for the Baltic States, Ukraine and Uzbekistan). The Office has its seat in Moscow.
Exist in Africa, two regional patents issuing regional patent offices, which historically from the former British and French dominions derived ( ARIPO, African Regional Industrial Property Organization; Treaty of Lusaka in 1976, central authority in Harare, 16 Member States, and OAPI, Organisation Africaine de la Propriété intellectual, largely now 1999 the revised Bangui Agreements, central authority in Yaounde, 15 Member States).
Also exists for five littoral states of the Persian Gulf in the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional patent system that grants regional patents since 1998.