EPO express
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Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.
"Shall enjoy" means that any patent application, any submitted utility model, or a utility certificate,
Several questions have arisen as to what is to be understood by "duly filed". Is it necessary that such filing only be correct as to form or also valid as to substance, so that a patent, etc. can be granted on it ? Does it matter whether the application once filed is later withdrawn, abandoned, or rejected, etc. ?
"Guide to the application of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property"
by Professor G. H. C. Bodenhausen, Director BIRPI, 1968
In order to clarify this issue the Revision Conferences of London and Lisbon introduced paragraphs (2) and (3):
Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be recognized as giving rise to the right of priority.
By a regular national filing is meant any filing that is adequate to establish the date on which the application was filed in the country concerned, whatever may be the subsequent fate of the application.
(c) EPO express 2020
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