知产慧学堂丨法国发明专利申请

1806年，法国颁布世界上第一部外观设计专门法。之后，法国的专利法和外观设计专利法不断修改完善，目前法国的专利制度主要由《知识产权法典》（最新由2012年5月3日第2012-634号法令修改）加以规定。

法国国家工业产权局(即INPI)是由法国经济财政部管理的公共机构，总部位于巴黎，且在布列塔尼等12个地区设有办公室。INPI是负责实施知识产权领域公共政策的主要部门，负责发明专利的受理和审查。

官方语言：法语。

• 中英文/法语专利文件全份，包括说明书、权利要求、附图、说明书摘要、现有技术资料（申请人所知的与发明密切相关的专利文献、科技文献等）
• 发明的名称
• 申请人中英文/法语名称及中英文/法语地址（如申请人是公司，请提供公司成立地）
• 发明人中英文姓名，如发明人不是申请人，请确认申请人和发明人的关系（如雇主/雇员等）
• 优先申请的地方、申请号及申请日（如要求优先权），优先权证明文件及其英文/法语翻译
• 委任书

注：1.如果申请是通过注册的法国专利代理人提交的，则不需要提供委任书。

2.专利申请可以以任何语言提交，但如果是以法语之外的语言提交，则必须在两个月内补交法语译文。在审查过程中，可基于外语原文更正翻译错误。

1.提交申请：向法国国家工业产权局提交申请材料并支付申请费；

2.受理：提交申请材料几天后，法国国家工业产权局将出具回执，包括申请日期和申请号；

3.形式审查：法国国家工业产权局审查申请的可受理性，主要是对申请类型和申请材料(申请人身份、申请费的支付、专利说明书、至少一项保护申请)是否完整进行初审。法国国家工业产权局将向法国国防部提交法国专利申请材料(提交材料后4周至5个月)；

4.检索：检索要求申请人提出请求并支付检索费用。提出请求和支付费用的时限为自申请日起18个月内。欧洲专利局自申请日起8个月内对专利申请作出检索报告。法国国家工业产权局收到检索报告后，以书面形式通知申请人，并要求申请人在3个月内对明显不具备新颖性的法国专利申请予以答复。申请人答复后，专利仍然缺乏新颖性的，予以驳回；

5.公布：如果没有驳回的理由，法国国家工业产权局将在申请日起18个月内公布法国专利申请和检索报告，并听取公众意见；

6.实质审查：法国发明专利进行有限的实质审查，对专利的实质审查有限且并不严格，这主要表现在：对于创造性和实用性不做审查，仅对明显不属于发明的客体、明显不属于可授予专利的发明或明显缺乏新颖性的发明予以驳回，将专利检索报告 提供给中请人和公众以方便对专利效力进行评价；

6.授权并颁发证书：在授予专利权时，法国国家工业产权局将书面通知申请人支付授权费和公告费。对于已支付专利证书费用的申请人，法国国家工业产权局将颁发专利证书。基于简单的专利审查过程和形式审查，法国的专利授权期较短，一般为27个月左右。

注：a.专利保护期自申请之日起算，最长20年，需每年缴纳年费，药品专利的年费减半缴纳。

b.当法国申请为首次申请时（即没有要求任何优先权），INPI将委托欧洲专利局（EPO）出具初步检索报告，通常自申请日起9个月内（有时10个月左右，但一般不会晚于12个月）发送给申请人。

当法国申请为二次申请时（即要求了优先权），初步检索报告由INPI自己出具。通常，INPI会在优先权日起2年左右，通知申请人提交同族申请在各国审查过程中审查员所引用文献的相关信息，以便为其检索提供参考，随后综合各方面信息，完成初步检索报告。

c.若要挑战一件法国专利的有效性，不是向法国国家工业产权局提出请求，而是要直接向法院提起无效诉讼。

法国专利费用如下：

制图：德同智汇

注：1.现在欧元与人民币的汇率为1欧元:7.59人民币，如欧盟外观设计申请官费为230英镑，人民币约为1744.96元。

2.法国专利申请可以申请费减，符合费减条件的申请人可以享受减半优惠。

3.年费（维持费）是从提交申请的第二个周年日开始缴纳。该费用须在周年届满月的最后一天前缴纳。若没有按时缴纳，可以在 6个月的宽限期内补交该费用和相应的滞纳金。需要注意的是，即使专利尚未授权、尚在申请阶段时，也要每年缴纳维持费。

在正式专利申请前， 提交临时申请可以通过简便的方式（提交说明书）快速获得一个申请日。满足正式专利申请的条件后，通过临时申请获得的申请日将作为判断是否存在在先技术的基准，从而对授权决定以及权利范围产生影响。申请人需要在自临时申请提交之日起12个月内将临时申请转变为正式申请，包括正式发明专利申请或正式实用证书申请。

临时专利申请是一种快速提交申请的方式，节省了正式申请所需各项材料的准备时间。同时，申请人享有12个月时间决定是否提交正式申请，这段时间可进行市场调查、融资以及确定权利要求书等。

法国发明专利的审查制度与实体审查制度和登记制都有一定的相似和不同之处，具体包括以下内容：

1.与实质审查制度的相似点

法国发明专利采用检索报告审查制度。大部分检索报告由目前世界上公认的检索能力较强的 EPO 制作，并包含了 EPO 审查员的检索意见，实质上已对发明专利申请的实体内容进行了实体审查。

2.PCT进入制度

法国没有单独的PCT进入程序，但是可以通过进入EP阶段，在EP专利授权后进入法国进行登记。PCT申请唯一获得法国专利保护的途径是通过PCT申请进入欧洲地区阶段。

3.审查制度

与登记制度的相似之处在于：虽申请人被要求必须答复检索报告，但除非申请人的答复或申请文件修改无法克服明显的新颖性缺陷，否则接下来法国工业产权局就会直接准予该专利申请取得专利权。

因此，法国发明专利的审查制度是一种介于实质审查制与登记制之间的制度。因此，通过此制度所获得的法国发明专利权并非是真正意义上经实质审查后所授予的专利权。

4.专利与新型的同时存在

如果法国的新型与发明专利保护同一发明（同一专利权人，同一申请日或优先权日，近似的保护范围），当发明专利授权时，新型即失去保护效力。

法国实施费用减缓的政策，对于部分申请人给出的高达50%的减缓，其中包括：

• 自然人;
• 中小型企业：员工数少于1000人，且持有25%以上股份的股东的员工数也少于1000人;
• 教育或科研领域的非营利性机构。

根据巴黎公约国民待遇规定，对于国外申请人应该也适用这些费用减缓免优惠。其中，申请专利的自然人无需提交任何文件就可享有一半的费用免除，企业和非盈利机构在提交相应材料及声明后，同样享受此优惠待遇。

需要注意的是，以上费用均不包含律师咨询费、代理费、审查意见答辩、申请异议、无效、翻译等法国律师服务费用。这些费用视服务内容、事务所规模、案件复杂程度、具体申请流程等情况而定的。

In 1806, France promulgated the world's first appearance design law. Since then, the French Patent law and design Patent Law have been constantly revised and improved. At present, the French patent system is mainly regulated by the Intellectual Property Code (the latest amended by Decree No. 2012-634 on May 3, 2012).

INPI is a public agency managed by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. It is headquartered in Paris and has offices in 12 regions, including Brittany. INPI is the main department responsible for implementing public policy in the field of intellectual property, and is responsible for the acceptance and examination of invention patents.

Official language: French.

• Complete copies of patent documents in Both Chinese and English/French, including specification, claim, attached drawings, abstract of specification, existing technical data (patent documents, scientific and technological documents that are closely related to the invention known to the applicant, etc.)
• Name of invention
• Applicant's English/French name and English/French address (if applicant is a company, please provide the place of incorporation)
• The place of priority application, application number and application date (if priority is claimed), documentary proof of priority and its English/French translation;
• Letter of Attorney

Note: 1.No power of attorney is required if the application is filed through a registered French patent agent.

2.Patent applications can be filed in any language, but if filed in a language other than French, a French translation must be submitted within two months. During the review process, translation errors may be corrected based on the original foreign language.

1. Submit application: Submit application materials and pay the application fee to the French National Office of Industrial Property；

2. Acceptance: A few days after the submission of the application materials, the French National Office of Industrial Property will issue a receipt, including the application date and application number；

3. Formal examination: The French National Office of Industrial Property reviews the acceptability of an application, mainly on the completeness of the application type and application materials (the identity of the applicant, the payment of the application fee, the patent specification, at least one protection application). The French National Office of Industrial Property will submit the French patent application materials to the French Ministry of Defence (4 weeks to 5 months after submission)；

4. Retrieval: Retrieval requires the applicant to request and pay the retrieval fee. The time limit for submission of the request and payment of the fee is 18 months from the date of application.Upon receipt of the search report, the French National Industrial Property Office notifies the applicant in writing and requires the applicant to respond within three months to any French patent application that is clearly not novel. Where, after the applicant has replied, the patent still lacks novelty, the application shall be rejected；

5. Publication: If there is no reason for rejection, the French National Industrial Property Office will publish the French patent application and search report within 18 months from the date of filing and solicit public comments；

6. Grant and issue certificates: At the time of grant of patent rights, the French National Office of Industrial Property will notify the applicant in writing to pay the licensing fee and notice fee. For the applicant who has paid the patent certificate fee, the French National Industrial Property Office will issue the patent certificate. Based on the simple patent examination process and formal examination, the patent grant period in France is relatively short, generally around 27 months.

Note: a. The patent protection period shall be 20 years from the date of application, and the annual fee shall be paid annually. The annual fee for drug patent shall be paid by half.

b. When the French application is a first application (i.e. no priority is claimed), INPI will entrust the European Patent Office (EPO) with a preliminary search report, which will normally be sent to the applicant within 9 months (sometimes around 10 months, but generally no later than 12 months) from the date of the application.

When the French application is a secondary application (i.e. a priority is claimed), the preliminary search report is issued by INPI itself. In general, INPI will inform the applicant to submit relevant information about the literature cited by the examiners in the national review process of the same family application about 2 years after the priority date, so as to provide reference for the retrieval, and then synthesize all aspects of information to complete the preliminary search report.

c. To challenge the validity of a French patent, one does not file a petition with the Patent Office, but goes directly to the courts to file an invalidation suit.

French patent fees are as follows :

Made：DETONG UNIMORAL

Note: 1.Now the exchange rate between Euro and RMB is 1 euro :7.59 RMB, for example, the official fee of EU design application is 230 pounds, RMB is about 1744.96 RMB.

2.The Application fee for French patent application can be reduced, and the applicants who meet the requirements of fee reduction can enjoy half discount.

3.The annual fee (maintenance fee) is payable from the second anniversary of application submission. The fee must be paid by the last day of the anniversary month. If you do not pay on time, you can pay the fee and the corresponding late fee within a 6 month grace period. It should be noted that even when the patent is not yet granted and is still in the application stage, there is an annual maintenance fee.

Prior to the formal patent application, The filing of an interim application can be done in a simple way (filing the specification) to obtain a filing date quickly. After the conditions for a formal patent application are met, the filing date obtained by an interim application will be used as a benchmark for determining the existence of prior technology, thereby influencing the granting decision and the scope of the rights.

The applicant needs to be in the The provisional application shall be converted into an official application, including an official invention patent application or an official utility certificate application, within 12 months from the date of submission of the provisional applicationA provisional patent application is a fast way to file an application, saving the time required to prepare all the documents required for a formal application. The applicant also has 12 months to decide whether to file a formal application, which allows for market research, financing and the determination of claims.

The examination system of Invention patent in France has certain similarities and differences with entity examination system and registration system, including the following contents:

1.Similarities with substantive review system

French invention patent adopts the retrieval report examination system. Most of the retrieval reports are produced by EPO, which is recognized as having strong retrieval ability in the world, and contain the retrieval opinions of THE EPO examiners. In essence, entity examination has been carried out on the entity content of the invention patent application.

2.PCT entry system

France does not have a separate PCT entry procedure, but it can enter France for registration after EP patent authorization by entering the EP stage. The only way for PCT application to obtain French patent protection is to enter the European regional stage through PCT application.

3.Review system

The similarity with the registration system is that although the applicant is required to reply to the search report, unless the applicant's reply or modification of the application documents cannot overcome the obvious novelty defect, the French Industrial Property Office will directly grant the patent application to obtain the patent right.

Therefore, the examination system of French invention patent is a system between substantive examination system and registration system. Therefore, the French invention patent right obtained through this system is not a patent right granted after substantive examination in the real sense.

4.Patent and new type exist simultaneously

If the French new type and invention patent protect the same invention (the same patentee, the same application date or priority date, similar protection scope), when the invention patent is authorized, the new type will lose its protection effect.

France implements the policy of cost reduction, with a reduction of up to 50% given by some applicants, including:

• Natural person;
• Small and medium-sized enterprises: the number of employees is less than 1000, and the number of employees of shareholders holding more than 25% shares is also less than 1000;
• A non-profit organization in the field of education or scientific research.

According to the national treatment provisions of the Paris Convention, these fee mitigation and exemption benefits should also be applied to foreign applicants. Among them, natural persons applying for patents can enjoy half the fee exemption without submitting any documents. Enterprises and non-profit institutions also enjoy this preferential treatment after submitting corresponding materials and statements.

It should be noted that the above fees do not include lawyer consulting fees, agency fees, defense of review opinions, application objections, invalidity, translation and other French lawyer service fees. These fees depend on the service content, the size of the firm, the complexity of the case, the specific application process, etc.