Subsection 1: Opposition

The opposition referred to in Article L. 613-23 shall be filed within a period of nine months following publication in the Bulletin officiel de la propriété industrielle of the mention of the grant of the contested patent. It may be filed by a natural person or legal entity acting personally or through an agent meeting the conditions laid down in Article R. 612-2. Natural or legal persons who do not…

The opposition request shall be submitted in writing in accordance with the conditions and procedures specified by decision of the Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property. It shall include: 1° the identity of the opposing party; 2° The references of the patent against which the opposition has been filed; 3° A statement specifying the scope of the opposition, the grounds on which it is based, the facts…

Any opposition filed by the owner of the contested patent shall be declared inadmissible. Any opposition that does not comply with the provisions of Articles R. 613-44 or R. 613-44-1 shall also be declared inadmissible. Where an objection is based on more than one ground, it shall be admissible only if the statement accompanying it complies, for at least one of these grounds, with the provisions of 3° of Article…

Where several opposition applications relate to the same patent, the Director General of the Institut national de la propriété industrielle shall order that they be joined, subject to their admissibility. The joinder shall be notified to the parties.

The Institut national de la propriété industrielle shall observe and observe itself the principle of contradiction. It may not base its decision on pleas, explanations or documents put forward or produced by the parties without the latter having been given the opportunity to debate them in adversarial proceedings. Any observations or documents submitted by one of the parties shall be notified without delay to the other parties. The parties are…

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.