The protection of inventions in France
The two French national titles are patent itself which has a maximum of duration of 20 years from the filing of the application and the certificate of utility whose duration is only 6 years but the criteria of patentability and conditions are the same as for a patent.
With regard to drugs for humans or animals, and phytosanitary??? products, a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) may be requested and will extend the "protection of 20 years granted by a patent of 5 years???
Furthermore, the European patent designated, validated and produced in France has the same effect and is subject to the same constraints as French patents
For these two titles, it is necessary to pay annual fees for maintenance so that the invention did not fall into the public domain.???
The procedure for issuing the patent French
Following the filing of a patent application, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) conducts a literature search to identify pre-existing relevant techniques.??? The report is forwarded to the owner within a period of between 9 and 10 months, normally after the filing. If relevant documents have been found, the owner is invited to respond to the report by questioning the relevance of documents and / or amend the claims. Note that the INPI cannot reject an application for lack of inventive step, however, a court may subsequently cancel a patent for this reason.
At the expiration of 18 months from the filing of the application (with the research report in Annex) is published by the INPI, which allows third parties to become aware.
After completing some formalities, the patent is issued and published. The delay??? is generally between 2.5 and 3 years from the filing of the application.