Which Register sections provide legal information, and which supplementary sections require verification in national registers?
Legal information related to European patents and Euro-PCT applications is provided in the European Patent Register for proceedings before the EPO only, including for post-grant procedures such as opposition, revocation, limitation and Unitary Patent protection. This information is provided in the following Register views:
- EP About this file
- EP Legal status*
- UP About this file
To fully understand and make use of the information in the Register, it is important first to check the status and phase of the patent application and the European or Unitary patent. The documents and correspondence listed in the EP All documents and UP All documents views provide background for the legal and procedural data displayed in the respective EP/UP views.
*Exception: Unitary Patent (UP) lapse information (indicated by the blue icon and Unitary Patent label) may also be available in the EP Legal status view. As this relates to post-grant procedures, UP lapses may appear in this view both during and after the opposition phase, unlike for the Designated contracting states section where lapse information is only provided up to the end of the opposition phase.
It is important to note that a Unitary Patent covers the territories of those participating member states in which the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) was in effect at the date of registration of unitary effect by the EPO. If protection is desired in a state in which the UPCA was not in effect on that date, the European patent can be validated in the other EPC contracting states whose territories are not covered by the Unitary Patent system, and so administered by the respective national patent offices. It is therefore possible for both unitary and national post-grant procedures to run in parallel.
Supplementary information is provided in the Register in:
- the EP Federated register view
- the INPADOC data section in the EP Legal status view
The national validation of a European patent (EP) is undertaken by the respective national patent offices of the designated contracting states. As a result, the legal status and legal information can only be obtained directly from the national patent office or authority. However, the Register does provide supplementary post-grant information on the status of a patent in the national phase in the EP Federated register view. The information in this view, however, is just an overview of data delivered in real time by each contributing national patent office and/or authority. Please take note of the disclaimer in this view.
The INPADOC data section in the EP Legal status view displays legal events that occur during the lifetime of a patent application. It can include legal events from patent gazettes and national patent registers, including the EPO and WIPO. Although European and Unitary patent data are included in INPADOC, we advise you to treat the information in the INPADOC data section as supplementary, and to consult the respective national registers for legal information. Please take note of the disclaimer in this section.
The EPO's legal obligation to display entries in the Register for the handling of European patents, Euro-PCT applications and Unitary Patents is laid out in the following legal texts:
- Art. 127 EPC
- Rule 143(1) EPC – Entries in the European Patent Register
- Rules 85, 21(2), 22(1), 23(1) and 24 EPC
- OJ EPO 2014, A86 – Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 15 July 2014 concerning the information given in the European Patent Register
- OJ EPO 2023, Supplementary publication 3 – Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 24 April 2023 concerning the information given in the European Patent Register
- Rule 16 UPR – Entries in the Register for unitary patent protection