European patent protection
European patent applications for companies outside Europe
Your patent stops at your national border. To protect your invention in Europe, you need a European patent application or national filings. I am Loek Steffanie, Dutch patent attorney and European Patent Attorney, and I handle that European part for you.
This page covers the filing routes, the EPO procedure, the differences from your home system that matter and the cost structure. Behind all of it sits one business question: where in Europe do you need exclusivity?
Does a patent from your home country protect your invention in Europe?
No. Patents are territorial: a US, Chinese or Brazilian patent gives you rights in that country and nowhere else.
A competitor can make, use and sell your invention in Germany, France or the UK without infringing your patent at home. If Europe matters for your sales, manufacturing or licensing, you need a patent granted for Europe.
A European patent is granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in one central procedure and can take effect in any of the 40 member states of the European Patent Organisation, including every EU country, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Türkiye. The alternative is to file separately with national patent offices.
Three routes to patent protection in Europe
Which routes are still open to you depends on what you have already filed, and when.
A direct European patent application
You file with the EPO within 12 months of your first filing, usually your national application at home, such as a US provisional, and claim its priority. Subject matter already disclosed in that first filing keeps the earlier priority date.
The European phase of a PCT application
If you filed an international PCT application within the priority year, you enter the European phase at the EPO no later than 31 months from your priority date. That buys time to test the market first.
Separate national applications
You file directly with the patent offices of individual countries, also within the 12-month priority year. This can make sense when only one or two European markets matter to you.
Which route fits your business in Europe?
Your deadlines limit the options; your markets decide between them. These are the questions I ask companies from outside Europe first:
- Where do you sell, or plan to sell? A patent is worth most where you face competition you want to stop.
- Where do your competitors manufacture? A patent in the country of production can stop infringing products before they reach any market.
- How certain is Europe for you? If the European market is still a question mark, the PCT route postpones the decision and most of the European costs.
Often the answer is a PCT application to keep options open, followed by a European phase shaped around the markets that turned out to matter. Either way, start well before the deadline, so there is time to adapt the claims and description to European practice.
How a European patent application moves through the EPO
The procedure runs in two main stages: search, then substantive examination. After grant, you decide where the patent takes effect.
Search report and preliminary opinion
The EPO checks the formalities, searches the prior art and issues a search report with a preliminary opinion on patentability.
Substantive examination
An examiner assesses novelty, inventive step and the other requirements, and you respond, often by amending the claims. Every amendment shapes what the patent will cover in Europe.
Grant and claim translations
Once you and the examiner agree on a text, you pay the fee for grant and publishing and file the claims in the two other EPO languages: French and German if you worked in English. After grant, third parties can still challenge the patent in an opposition at the EPO.
Validation or unitary effect
A classic European patent becomes a bundle of national patents: you validate it in the countries you choose, each with its own translation requirements.
Since June 1, 2023, you can also request unitary effect, within one month after the mention of grant is published: one Unitary Patent for the 18 EU countries currently taking part. The UK, Switzerland and Spain, for example, fall outside it and are covered through the classic European patent. Disputes over Unitary Patents go to the Unified Patent Court, which opened on the same date, and so do disputes over classic European patents in UPC countries, unless they are opted out during the transitional period.
Where European patent practice surprises applicants from outside Europe
Three rules account for most of the surprises. Where it helps, I use US practice as the point of comparison.
No grace period for your own disclosures
Under US law, your own disclosure up to one year before your effective filing date does not count against you. Europe has no such general grace period: a paper, a trade show demo or samples handed out before filing can destroy novelty in Europe, even when the US grace period still covers you. The exceptions are narrow: evident abuse, and display at an officially recognized international exhibition, both only within six months before filing.
Strict limits on added matter
After filing, you cannot amend the application so that it contains subject matter going beyond the application as filed, and the EPO applies this rule rigorously. Fallback positions, preferred ranges and feature combinations you may need later have to be in the text on day one.
Inventive step through the problem-solution approach
The EPO determines the closest prior art, defines the objective technical problem and asks whether the claimed solution would have been obvious to the skilled person. In chemistry, data showing a technical effect over that closest prior art, such as comparative examples, often makes the difference.
What drives the cost of a European patent application
I don't quote amounts on this page, because the total depends on your invention, your route and the number of countries. The structure of the costs is predictable, though:
- EPO fees during the procedure, such as the filing, search, designation and examination fees and the fee for grant and publishing. Claims beyond the fifteenth cost extra.
- Renewal fees to the EPO while the application is pending, from the third year onward. After grant you pay them per country, or as a single fee for a Unitary Patent.
- Translations of the claims into French and German at grant, and depending on the country, translations for validation.
- Attorney fees for drafting or adapting the application, responding to the examiner and handling validation, including the coordination with your patent counsel at home.
You can steer on the number of countries, the number of claims, the choice between a Unitary Patent and national validations, and the timing: a PCT application moves most European costs to 31 months.
Why companies outside Europe need a European patent attorney
Anyone can file a European patent application. For everything after that, the European Patent Convention (Article 133(2) EPC) requires applicants without a residence or principal place of business in a member state to be represented by a professional representative. For a company from the US, China or anywhere else outside Europe, that means a European patent attorney.
In practice I work alongside your patent counsel at home. They know your invention and your first filing. I handle the European side, and we agree up front who does what, so no work is done twice.
What I add is the commercial question for Europe. Your European application should cover what you want to protect in the European market, and that is not always what your claims at home cover. Read more about how I handle European patent applications and my background in chemistry.
Built for the EPO
Claims and description adapted to EPO practice, not a straight copy of the text you filed at home.
One contact in Europe
You and your counsel at home deal with me directly, from filing to validation.
Chemistry in depth
Compounds, formulations, polymers and coatings: we go straight into the technology.
European patent application: questions from companies outside Europe
According to the EPO, the grant procedure takes about three to five years from the date of filing. The application is published 18 months after the priority date, and after grant third parties have nine months to file an opposition. At the start, I set those milestones against your launch and funding plans.
In most cases, no. By then your first application has usually been published, and that publication counts as prior art against a later European application, because Europe has no general grace period. The exception is a PCT application filed within the priority year: its European phase stays open until 31 months from the priority date, even if your patent at home is granted in the meantime. That is why I advise deciding within the first 12 months how to keep Europe open: a direct European filing or a PCT application.
Yes. The UK and Switzerland are member states of the European Patent Organisation, so a granted European patent can take effect there. Neither is part of the Unitary Patent, which currently covers 18 EU countries. You can combine a Unitary Patent with the classic European patent in countries such as the UK and Switzerland, and I help you choose the mix that fits your markets.
Yes. English is one of the three official languages of the EPO, together with French and German, so you can handle the whole procedure in English. At grant, you file the claims in French and German, and some countries require further translations for validation. I list those before grant, so you can budget for them.
Not to an application that has already been filed: the EPO does not allow amendments beyond the content as filed. If your European application is still to be filed within the priority year, I include the new results there, and that new material then gets the European filing date instead of your original priority date.
Your counsel at home keeps your national file. At Patents4Business I take on the European part: reviewing or adapting the application for the EPO, filing it or entering the European phase, handling the examination and advising on validation. I keep both of you informed of every EPO deadline.
About the author
Loek Steffanie, european Patent Attorney
Loek Steffanie is a Dutch patent attorney and European Patent Attorney. He has a background in chemistry and more than 25 years of experience, a large part of it at an international chemical company. He connects technology, law and business to help companies protect their inventions and get more business value from them.
Last updated on July 29, 2026
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