The European Patent System: A Descriptive Analysis

Georg von Graevenitz and Antanina Garanasvili

No 94, Working Papers from Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research

Abstract: The European Patent System consists of national patent offices (NPOs) and the supranational European Patent Office (EPO). EPO and the NPOs have granted patents in Europe side-by-side since 1980. The resulting patent system is complicated and less coordinated than might be expected. Firms must consider a number of variables when selecting the route of patenting they take within this system: price, rigour of examination, duration of examination, quality of legal redress. To date there is little descriptive evidence on how firms choose between EPO and national offices. This paper provides a rich descriptive analysis of patenting in Europe. We analyze how origin, size and technological focus of companies, affect how they choose among patent offices within the EPS and report differences in examination durations and grant rates across patent offices.

Keywords: Patents; European Patent System; Validation; Patent Propensity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K11 L20 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ind, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-law and nep-sbm
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http://cgr.sbm.qmul.ac.uk/CGRWP94.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: The European Patent System: A Descriptive Analysis (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgs:wpaper:94

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