美国专利和欧洲专利的差异(Differences between US and EP) The European Patent Convention (EPC)欧洲专利公约（EPC）
Currently, for ICT-related inventions the two most important areas to obtain patent protection are probably the United States and West-European countries. Twenty European countries are currently member to the European Patent Convention, and it is possible to obtain patent protection in those countries through a single procedure before the European Patent Office.
目前，与信息通讯技术相关的两个最重要的领域的发明，其专利的保护一般都是通过进入美国和西欧等国家获取的。欧洲专利公约当前加入了20个新成员国，并使申请人在向欧洲专利局提交申请之前能够通过某单一程序向所在成员国申请专利保护。 While quite a few aspects of patent law have been harmonized internationally (not in the least due to treaties like the Patent Cooperation Treaty or TRIPS), there still are many important differences between the two systems. This article discusses several of them.
虽然，专利法中有相当几个方面的内容已经做了国际化的协调与统一（不完全与《专利合作条约》以及《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》相同），但美欧两个系统间仍旧存在重要的差异，本文就其差异做出以下几点概括。
First to file versus first to invent
先申请制VS先发明制
When two people apply for a patent on the same invention, the first person to have filed his application will get the patent (assuming the invention is patentable, of course). This holds even if the second person did in fact come up with the invention first. The only thing that counts is the filing date.
若两名当事人就同一个发明分别申请专利权，那么率先提出申请者将获得该专利权（假设该发明确认是具有可专利性的）。由此认为，尽管此项发明是由第二个申请人先提出的，但仅以提交申请的日期为准。
In the USA, a slightly different approach is used. In case of two applications for the same invention (a so-called interference), a determination is made who invented it first. This usually involves examining laboratory logbooks, establishing dates for prototypes, and so on. If the person who filed later is found to have invented earlier, he may be awarded the patent.
而美国则使用了稍微不同的方法。为了避免两位申请人申请同一发明的专利（即所谓的干扰），于是由先发明制决定专利权的所属人。依据通常包括：检查实验室研发日记，专利原型的创建日期等。如果后申请人能证明是其先做此发明的，也有获得专利权的可能。
Grace period
宽限期
If the invention has become publicly available in any way before the patent application was filed, the application will be rejected (Artic le 54 EPC). "Public ly available" includes selling the invention, giving a lecture about it, showing it to an investor without a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), publishing it in a magazine, and so on. It does not make a difference whether the person making it publicly available is the inventor, one of the inventors, or an independent third party.
若发明是在提交专利申请之前以任何形式向社会公开过的，该申请将被拒绝（《欧洲专利公约》第54条规定）。公开发布的形式包括出售发明，召开讲座，未规定保密协议（NDA）就向投资者展示，在杂志上发表等。无论做出此行为的人是发明者、发明者之一或者独立的第三方，该申请都将被拒。
The USA has a one-year grace period (35 US Code section 102). This means that the inventor can freely publish his invention without losing patent rights. However, this only applies for the USA.
If an inventor does so, he automatically loses all potential patent rights in Europe (as well as many other countries in the world).
美国对此有一年的宽限期（35美国法典第102条规定），这意味着发明人能在此期限内自
由发布其发明的信息且不会因此失去专利权。然而，此规定只适用于美国。若发明人做出了
以上行为，他将自动失去欧洲国家的潜在专利权（全球除美国以外的任意国家均不支持此项规定）。
Best mode requirement
最佳模式的要求
US patent law requires the inventor to include the best way to practice the invention in the patent application (35 US Code section 112). This way, the inventor cannot get a patent and still keep some essential or advantageous aspect a secret.
美国专利法案要求发明者在专利申请书中要包含一个实现该发明的最佳方式（35美国法典第112条规定）。通过这种方式，可以防止发明人在获得专利的同时还保留一些必要或有利的方面作为秘密。
In contrast, European patent law has no such requirement. At least one way of practicing the invention must be included in the application (Article 83 EPC), but there is nothing that states this way must be the best way, or even a good way.
相反，欧洲专利法案并没有做此规定。但是，申请人要在递交申请书时包含至少一项该发明的实践方式（《欧洲专利公约》第83条规定），然而没有在实践方法的好坏程度上做规定。
Publication of patent applications
Until recently, US patents were only published after grant. This has been changed, and now in the US patent applications are published 18 months after their filing date, unless they have been withdrawn or they are filed with a non-publication request, stating that the application is US only.
直至最近，美国专利只有在经过授权之后才能公布的规定已被更改。除了专利申请被撤销或者提出非公开裁决的要求这两种状况之外，美国的专利申请将会在申请之日起的十八个月后进行公布，并声明该规定只适用于美国。
This is very similar (except for the request) to the European situation, where all patent applications are published 18 months after their filing date, unless they have been withdrawn. If the novelty search has been completed by that time, the search report is included with the publication.
欧洲公布专利申请的规定与美国的情况相似（要求方面有所不同），除了专利申请被撤销的情况以外，
欧洲专利均能在申请之日起的十八个月后进行公布。若发明新颖性的检索能在同一时期完成，那该检索报告就会包含在公布的内容里。
The publication of a patent application is not an indication of the patentability of the invention in any way. It only means that the application is 18 months old. In the past, people used to the US system of publishing only granted patents could incorrectly assume that anything published by the EPO was a granted patent.
任何情况下，一个专利申请的公布并不代表此发明完全具有可获得专利的性质，这只表示该申请已达18个月之久。在过去，人们习惯于美国公布制度只公布已被授权的专利，因此错误地认为由欧洲专利公约公布的专利就是一个已被授权的专利。
You can tell the difference between an application and a granted patent in two ways. First, the number in the top-right corner has an "A" when the publication is an application, and a "B" when it is a patent. Second, granted European patents do not have an abstract on the front cover.
我们能通过两种方式来区分一项专利申请和一个已授权专利。方法一，当一份出版声明只处于申请阶段，那么文件右上角的编号显示为“A”。相反的，当一项申请已经被授权为专利时，则文件的右上角编号显示为“B”；方法二，已授权的欧洲专利在其公告书的封面上不会有该专利的摘要。
Rights conferred by a granted patent
已授权专利所拥有的权利
A US patent is a property right which is enforceable in the whole territory of the USA. It allows the patent holder to prevent anyone from making, using or selling in the USA the patented invention. This is because the US patent law (35 US Code) is a federal statute.
一项美国专利是一个在美国领土内各地区实施有效的产权。专利持有人将有权阻止在美国境内的任何个人或者团体进行制作、利用甚至出售此项发明专利。以上规定的依据是，美国专利法（35美国法典）即是美国联邦法。
In contrast, the European Patent Convention is a treaty signed by twenty-seven European countries, namely
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Patents under the EPC are granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich.
相比之下，欧洲专利公约就是一项由奥地利、比利时、保加利亚、瑞士、塞浦路斯、捷克、德国、丹麦、爱沙尼亚、西班牙、芬兰、法国、希腊、匈牙利、爱尔兰、意大利、列支敦士登、卢森堡、摩洛哥、荷兰、葡萄牙、罗马尼亚、斯洛文尼亚、斯洛伐克、瑞典、土耳其以及英国这二十七个欧洲国家联合签订的条约。以上国家的专利均由总部在慕尼黑的欧洲专利局所授权。
A granted European patent under the EPC confers to its owner the same right as a national patent in those EPC countries he elected in the application. So, essentially, a European patent changes into a "bundle" of national patents. This means that, once granted, a European patent can only be annulled by separate proceedings in each elected country. However, during the first nine months after the grant of the patent, anyone can start an opposition procedure at the EPO to annul the patent in all these countries at once.
一项在欧洲专利公约下已被授权的欧洲专利，其在申请人所选的成员国中都是通行有效的国家专利。因此，基本上，一项欧洲专利就变成了“一扎”国家专利。这也意味着，一旦欧洲专利被授权，只有通过公约各成员国逐一进行操作程序才能废除该专利。然而，在该专利被授权后的头九个月内，任何人都有权向欧洲专利局提出异议并开始进入异议程序，要求立即在公约所有成员国废除该专利。
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