Pregledni rad
Croatia and Macedonia in the European patent system
Romana Matanovac Vučković
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Croatia and Macedonia have acceded to the European Patent Convention and thus introduced in their national patent legislation the possibility of obtaining a European patent for their respective areas. The rules adopted in these two countries facilitating direct application of the provisions of the European Patent Convention are largely similar. These are typical rules governing mainly the following matters: the possibility of lodging a European patent application through a national body competent for granting patents or directly with the European Patent Office, the effects of a published European patent application which are equivalent to those of a published national application, and the effects of a granted European patent equivalent to the effects of a national patent.
In accordance with the European Patent Convention, in both Croatia and Macedonia the “first to file” principle is observed when deciding who has the right to the European (and not national) patent, i.e. who has the investor's right as a subjective right which consists in the power to lodge a patent application in order to obtain a patent and be named in law as the inventor.
Further, the right conferred by the European patent application is regulated in Croatia as a temporary right on the basis of which the applicant may claim compensation from anyone using the invention stated in the application from the date of the receipt of the Croatian translation of the patent application. On the other hand, the right conferred by the national application has effect with regard to third parties from the date of the publication of the application. In Macedonia, the right from the national application is regulated as a conditional right identical in substance to the right conferred by a granted patent. The right conferred by the European patent application is regulated in the same way, except that, like in Croatia, it has effect from the date of the receipt of the Macedonian translation by the person using the invention stated in the application.
Finally, the effects of a granted European application are identical to the effects of national patents in Croatia and Macedonia, conferring to the patent holder subjective exclusive rights, both positive and negative. In order for a European patent to have such effect, it is necessary to apply for the registration of the patent in the national register and submit a Croatian translation of the patent application, i.e. a Macedonian translation and summary of the patent application.
The conclusion which can be derived from the above is that the rules facilitating direct application of the provisions of the European Patent Convention in Croatia and Macedonia are largely similar, and that the effect of the European patent application and European patent is regulated in the same way in both countries. The minor differences in reasoning from the point of view of legal dogmatics have no practical impact.
Ključne riječi
European Patent Convention; European patent; European patent application
Hrčak ID:
67132
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.3.2011.
Posjeta: 1.965 *