EPO express

Which filings entitle to a priority right?

In order to entitle an applicant, or his successor in title to a priority right, the first filing must be either 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

This wording does not include verbatim regional filings, such as a European patent application, or an international application under the PCT. However, regional and international filings, are usually considered by the domestic legislation as equivalent to national filings, as as a conseqeunce o fthe regional or international filing a national patent may be obtained. For example the German Inventor renumeration act prescribed that when an invention disclosure was accepted by the employer he had an obligation to file a national application (patent or utility model). As the German Inventor renumeration Act was older than the European Patent Convention, it was silent if an employer that had filed a regional application had fulfilled his legal obligation when filing a European patent application. The German Supreme Court however decided, that a European patent application was equivalent to a national German patent application.