Chapter III: Patent rights

An agent of the National Institute of Industrial Property who has examined a patent application may not examine the opposition filed against that patent. However, this agent may be heard in the opposition proceedings.

Subject to the inadmissibility raised ex officio by the Institut national de la propriété industrielle and to the cases of suspension or closure of the procedure referred to in Articles R. 613-44-10 and R. 613-44-12 respectively, the opposition proceedings shall take place in the following four phases: 1° A phase of information and collection of the patent proprietor’s opinion. The Director General of the Institute will notify the patent proprietor…

The Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property shall decide on the opposition in the light of all the written and oral observations submitted by the parties and the latest proposals for amendment of the patent submitted by the patent proprietor. The Director General of the Institute may base his decision on facts put forward or documents produced after the expiry of the time limits referred to in…

The period referred to in the last paragraph of Article L. 613-23-2 shall be four months. The date of the end of the investigation phase referred to in the same paragraph is notified without delay to the parties by the Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property. This date shall occur if no party has submitted observations on the expiry of the time limits mentioned in 2° or…

The Institut national de la propriété industrielle publishes a new patent specification when the decision ruling on the opposition, which is no longer subject to appeal, maintains the patent in an amended form.

The prosecution phase or the time limit laid down in the first paragraph of Article R. 613-44-8 shall be suspended: 1° At the written request of any person establishing that an action to claim ownership of the patent has been brought, or that, on the date on which the request for opposition is filed in accordance with Article R. 613-44-1, an application for invalidity of the same patent has been…

Where opposition proceedings are suspended pursuant to the provisions of 1° of Article R. 613-44-10, they shall be resumed at the request of one of the parties forwarding to the National Institute of Industrial Property the decision ruling on the ownership claim or invalidity that has become res judicata. Where opposition proceedings are suspended pursuant to the provisions of the fourth paragraph of Article R. 613-44-10, they shall be resumed…

The opposition procedure is closed: 1° When all opponents have withdrawn their opposition; 2° If the patent has been declared invalid by a final and binding court decision; > 3° If the proprietor of the patent renounces the claims to which the opposition relates; 4° When the effects of the patent against which the opposition was filed have ceased, unless the opponent can show a legitimate interest in obtaining a…