Section 1: Submission of applications

The patent application shall be filed at the headquarters of the National Institute of Industrial Property or shall be sent there by post or by any means of teletransmission under the conditions defined by decision of its Director General. The filing date shall be the date of receipt of the application at the headquarters of the Institute. The Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property may require filing…

The application may be filed by the applicant personally or by a representative whose domicile, registered office or place of business is in a Member State of the European Union or in a State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Subject to the exceptions provided for in articles L. 422-4 and L. 422-5, the agent, constituted for the filing and for the performance of any subsequent act…

The patent application shall comprise a request for the grant of a patent, the model for which shall be laid down by decision of the Director General of the Institut national de la propriété industrielle and to which shall be annexed: 1° A description of the invention, accompanied, where appropriate, by drawings; 2° One or more claims; 3° An abstract of the technical content of the invention; 4° Where appropriate,…

The patent application may be filed in the form of a provisional application allowing the submission of the documents referred to in 2°, 3° and 4° of Article R. 612-3 to be deferred. The request for grant shall mention, by means of an indication filled in by the applicant, the filing in provisional form. The submission of the documents mentioned in 2°, 3° and 4° of Article R. 612-3 is…

The applicant may request in writing that his provisional application comply with the requirements of Article R. 612-3or its conversion into a utility certificate application referred to in the first paragraph of Article L. 612-15. This request may be made at any time during the twelve-month period from the date of filing of the provisional application or the earliest date from which it benefits. Failing this, the provisional patent application…

The patent application must not contain: 1° Elements or drawings the publication or implementation of which would be contrary to public policy or morality; 2° Denigrating statements concerning the products or processes of third parties or the merit or validity of patent applications or patents of third parties. Mere comparisons with the state of the art are not in themselves considered disparaging; 3° Elements manifestly extraneous to the description of…

The patent application must, within one month of the filing of the documents, be followed by payment of: 1° The filing fee; 2° The search report fee, unless the application has been filed in the form of a provisional patent application provided for in Article R. 612-3-1. Where the patent application has been filed in the form of a provisional application, the search report fee must be paid within one…

A receipt noting the date of submission of the documents shall be issued to the applicant by the National Institute of Industrial Property.

Within fifteen days of the filing or arrival of the documents at the National Institute of Industrial Property, the latter shall assign a national registration number to the patent application and shall notify it to the applicant without delay. Any subsequent correspondence or filing of documents which does not refer to this number or which does not bear the signature of the applicant or his representative shall be declared inadmissible….

The benefit of the filing date of the patent application is acquired on the date of submission of at least one copy of the documents listed in Article L. 612-2, drawn up in the French language, subject to the provisions of Article R. 612-21. Where one of the documents mentioned in the previous paragraph is missing, the applicant shall be invited to complete the patent application within a period of…