Definition
Patent by EPO: Legal title granting its holder the exclusive right to make use of an invention for a limited area and time by stopping others from, amongst other things, making, using or selling it without authorization. A European patent can be obtained by filing a single application in one of the official languages of the European Patent Office (English, French or German) in a unitary procedure before the EPO and is valid in as many of the contracting states as the applicant cares to designate. A European patent affords the same rights in the designated contracting states as a national patent granted in any of these states.
