-
The European Patent Convention
(EPC)
欧洲专利公约（
EPC
）
Currently, for ICT-related inventions
the two most important areas to obtain patent
protection are probably
the United
States and West-European countries. Twenty
European countries are currently member to the
European Patent Convention, and it is
possible to obtain patent protection in those
countries through a single
procedure
before the European Patent Office.
目前，与
信息通讯技术相关的两个最重要的领域的发明
,
其专利的保护一
般都是通过进入美国和西欧
等国家获取的。欧洲专利公约当前加入了
20
个新成员国，并使申请人在向欧洲专利局提交申请之前
能够通过某单一程序向所在成员国申请专利保护。
While
quite a few aspects of patent law have been
harmonized internationally (not in the least due
to treaties
like the Patent Cooperation
Treaty or TRIPS), there still are many important
differences between the two
systems.
This article discusses several of them.
虽然，专利法中有相当几个方面的内容已经做了国际化的协调
与统一（不完全与《专利合作条约》
以及《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》相同），但美欧
两个系统间仍旧存在重要的差异，本文就其差异
做出以下几点概括。
First to file versus first to
invent
先申请制
VS
先发明制
When two people
apply for a patent on the same invention, the
first person to have filed his application will
get the patent (assuming the invention
is patentable, of course). This holds even if the
second person did in
fact come up with
the invention first. The only thing that counts is
the filing date.
若两名当事人就同一个
发明分别申请专利权，那么率先提出申请者将获得该专利权（假设该发明确
认是具有可专
利性的）。由此认为，尽管此项发明是由第二个申请人先提出的，但仅以提交申请的日
期
为准。
In the USA, a slightly
different approach is used. In case of two
applications for the same invention (a
so-called interference), a
determination is made who invented it first. This
usually involves examining
laboratory
logbooks, establishing dates for prototypes, and
so on. If the person who filed later is found to
have invented earlier, he may be
awarded the patent.
而美国则使用了稍微不同的方法。为了避免
两位申请人申请同一发明的专利（即所谓的干扰），于是
由先发明制决定专利权的所属人
。依据通常包括：检查实验室研发日记，专利原型的创建日期等。如
果后申请人能证明是
其先做此发明的，也有获得专利权的可能。
Grace
period
宽限期
If the invention has become publicly
available in any way before the patent application
was filed, the
application will be
rejected (Article 54 EPC).
lecture
about it, showing it to an investor without a non-
disclosure agreement (NDA), publishing it in a
magazine, and so on. It does not make a
difference whether the person making it publicly
available is the
inventor, one of the
inventors, or an independent third party.
< br>若发明是在提交专利申请之前以任何形式向社会公开过的，该申请将被拒绝（《欧洲专利公约》第
54
条规定）。公开发布的形式包括出售发明，召开讲座，未规定保密协
议（
NDA
）就向投资者展示，
在杂志
上发表等。无论做出此行为的人是发明者、发明者之一或者独立的第三方，该申请都将被拒。
The USA has a one-year grace period
(35 US Code section 102). This means that the
inventor can freely
publish his
invention without losing patent rights. However,
this only applies for the USA. If an inventor
does so, he automatically loses all
potential patent rights in Europe (as well as many
other countries in the
world).
< br>美国对此有一年的宽限期（
35
美国法典第
102
条规定），这意味着发明人能在此期限内自由发布其
< br>发明的信息且不会因此失去专利权。然而，此规定只适用于美国。若发明人做出了以上行为，他将自
动失去欧洲国家的潜在专利权（全球除美国以外的任意国家均不支持此项规定）。
Best mode requirement
最佳模式的要求
US patent
law requires the inventor to include the best way
to practice the invention in the patent
application
(35 US Code section 112).
This way, the inventor cannot get a patent and
still keep some essential or
advantageous aspect a secret.
美国专利法案要求发明者在专利申请书中要包含一个实现该发明的最佳方式（
35<
/p>
美国法典第
112
条
规定）。通过这种方式，可以防止发明人在获得专利的同时还保留一些必要或有利的方面作为秘密。
In contrast, European patent
law has no such requirement. At least one way of
practicing the invention must
be
included in the application (Article 83 EPC), but
there is nothing that states this way must be the
best way,
or even a good way.
相反，欧洲专利法案并没有做此规定。但是，申请人要在递交申请书时包含至少一项该发明的实践方
式（《欧洲专利公约》第
83
条规定），然而没
有在实践方法的好坏程度上做规定。
Publication
of patent applications
专利申请的公布
Until
recently, US patents were only published after
grant. This has been changed, and now in the US
patent
applications are published 18
months after their filing date, unless they have
been withdrawn or they are
filed with a
non-publication request, stating that the
application is US only.
直至最近，
美国专利只有在经过授权之后才能公布的规定已被更改。
除了专利申请被撤销或者提出
非
公开裁决的要求这两种状况之外，
美国的专利申请将会在申请
之日起的十八个月后进行公布，
并声明
该规定只适用于美国。<
/p>
This is very similar (except
for the request) to the European situation, where
all patent applications are
published
18 months after their filing date, unless they
have been withdrawn. If the novelty search has
been
completed by that time, the search
report is included with the publication.
欧洲公布专利申请的规定与美国的情况相似
（要求方面有所不同）
< br>，
除了专利申请被撤销的情况以外，
欧洲专利均能在申请
之日起的十八个月后进行公布。
若发明新颖性的检索能在同一时期完成，
那该检
索报告就会包含在公布的内容里。
The publication of a patent application
is not an indication of the patentability of the
invention in any way. It
only means
that the application is 18 months old. In the
past, people used to the US system of publishing
only granted patents could incorrectly
assume that anything published by the EPO was a
granted patent.
任何情况下，
一个专利申请
的公布并不代表此发明完全具有可获得专利的性质，
这只表示该申请已达
18
个月之久。在过去，人们习惯于美国公布制度只公布已被授权的专利，因此
错误地认为由欧洲专
利公约公布的专利就是一个已被授权的专利。
You can tell the difference between
an application and a granted patent in two ways.
First, the number in the
top-right
corner has an
granted European patents
do not have an abstract on the front cover.
我们能通过两种方式来区分一项专利申请和一个已授权专利。
方法一，
当一份出版声明只处于申请阶
段，那么文件右上角的编号显示为
“A”
。相反的，当一项申请已经被授权为专利时，则文件的右上角<
/p>
编号显示为
“B”
；方法二，已授权的欧
洲专利在其公告书的封面上不会有该专利的摘要。
Rights conferred by a granted
patent
已授权专利所拥有的权利
A US
patent is a property right which is enforceable in
the whole territory of the USA. It allows the
patent
holder to prevent anyone from
making, using or selling in the USA the patented
invention. This is because
the US
patent law (35 US Code) is a federal statute.
一项美国专利是一个在美国领土内各地区实施有效的产权。
专利持有人将
有权阻止在美国境内的任何
个人或者团体进行制作、利用甚至出售此项发明专利。以上规
定的依据是，美国专利法（
35
美国法
典）即是美国联邦法。
In contrast, the
European Patent Convention is a treaty signed by
twenty-seven European countries, namely
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Switzerland, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany,
Denmark, Estonia, Spain,
Finland,
France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the
Netherlands,
Portugal, Romania,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey and the United
Kingdom. Patents under the EPC are
granted by the European Patent Office
(EPO) in Munich.
相比之下，欧洲专利公约就是一项由奥地利、比利
时、保加利亚、瑞士、塞浦路斯、捷克、德国、丹
麦、爱沙尼亚、西班牙、芬兰、法国、
希腊、匈牙利、爱尔兰、意大利、列支敦士登、卢森堡、摩洛
哥、荷兰、葡萄牙、罗马尼
亚、斯洛文尼亚、斯洛伐克、瑞典、土耳其以及英国这二十七个欧洲国家
联合签订的条约
。以上国家的专利均由总部在慕尼黑的欧洲专利局所授权。
A granted European patent under the EPC
confers to its owner the same right as a national
patent in those
EPC countries he
elected in the application. So, essentially, a
European patent changes into a
national
patents. This means that, once granted, a European
patent can only be annulled by separate
proceedings in each elected country.
However, during the first nine months after the
grant of the patent,
anyone can start
an opposition procedure at the EPO to annul the
patent in all these countries at once.
一项在欧洲专利公约下已被授权的欧洲专利，其在申请人所选的成员国中都是通行有效的国家专利。
因此，基本上，一项欧洲专利就变成了
“
一扎
”
国家专利。这也意味着，一旦欧洲专利被授权，只有通
过公约各成员国逐一进行操作程序才能废除该专利。然而，在该专利被授权后的头九个月内，任何人<
/p>
都有权向欧洲专利局提出异议并开始进入异议程序，要求立即在公约所有成员国废除该专利
。
Opposition after
grant
授权之后的异议
Within nine months after the grant of a
European patent, anyone can file an opposition
with the EPO, stating
why this patent
should not have been granted (of course with
arguments and evidence). The patent holder
and the opponent can then debate with
each other. Finally, the EPO will take a decision
based on facts and
arguments presented
by both sides.
在一项欧洲专利被授权之后的九个月内，任何人都可以
提交一份异议书到欧洲专利局
,
陈述为什么这
个专利不应该被授权
(
当然
,
还包括要提交论据和证明
)
。
然后，该专利持有者与反对者可以彼此答辩。
最终，欧洲专利局会根据双方呈现的事实与论据做最后的裁定。
Usually, after the parties presented
their case to the EPO (by exchanging numerous
letters with each other),
the patent
holder and the opponent present their case during
Oral Proceedings at the EPO in Munich. After