The following statuses are provided:

Request for EP validation pending: IPO CZ did not still received EP validation (EP translation into Czech language), thus, it has not been validated for CZ yet.

Patent not validated: This corresponds to IPO CZ legal status “EP null and void from the outset”. It means the validation process was negatively closed. The patent owner did not provide EP validation.

Request for EP validation received: The request is being processed and has not been affirmed yet.

Patent in force: Patent has been successfully validated and is in force for Czech territory.

Patent lapsed: This status avers two IPO CZ statuses:

• Valid document/grace period   – is a state when the patent is lapsed, however during this period the patent proprietor can pay renewal fees and can renew the patent “at the last minute”.

• Valid document/expired grace period  – is a state when the grace period (for accepting renewal fees) is expired, yet, due to procedural matters, the expiration has not still been registered/recorded.

Appeal filed: IPO CZ has received an appeal (to any decision IPO CZ took.

Nullity requested: IPO CZ has received a request for invalidating EP. The request has not been affirmed yet.

Patent limited: invention description and/or patent claims have been limited on patent owner’s request. The proceedings were conducted at EPO.

Patent maintained in amended form: invention description and/or patent claims have been limited on third party’s request. The proceedings were conducted at EPO.

Patent revoked: Already granted document that is annulled at request of third party, EPO or IPO CZ.

Patent lapsed: Expired document – renewal fees were not paid.

Patent expired: Expired document after 20 years of patent validity

Patent surrendered: Patent proprietor surrendered the rights to the document, i.e. patent is no longer valid.

Patent not in force: There are two reasons: Invalid document or EP ineffective from the outset

• Invalid document means that the document is not in force in CZ due to mistakes in proceedings (information about validity was wrong).
• EP ineffective from the outset means that validation proceedings were not accomplished

IPO CZ displays its own application number format (based on the EP application number) with “CZ” in the front of it.

Czech application number format:

CZYYYY-NNNNNN

CZ: country code
YYYY: year of filing
123456: EP Application number - zeros at the left, if any, are ignored

Example: CZ2008-829729, CZ2009-77

IPO CZ does not create its own subsequent national application or publication numbers to identify the EP rights at the national level. Therefore, IPO CZ provides ordinary EP publication numbers.

EP Publication number format: EP1234567

EP: notifies the user this is an ordinary EP publication number
1234567: publication number completed by zeros from the left.

Example: EP1581754, EP000005, EP1876420

According to FePR Quick Help, "The invalidation date reflects the date when the decision on the invalidation was taken". Thus, this is the date when IPO CZ made a record of it in database. Since IPO CZ’s registers are updated daily, the invalidation date and the register-last-updated date correspond. The invalidation date can be recorded quite long time after the real (official) invalidation date. It is so because a proprietor can supply the translation of granted patent at most 6 months after the date of granting – according to Czech patent law (based on European Patent Convention, Article 65).

Date is provided for following statuses:

Patent revoked: where the “Not in force since” date corresponds to the date of filing / priority date

Patent lapsed: where the “Not in force since” date corresponds to last validity date of EP

Patent expired: where the “Not in force since” date is the date of filing plus 20 years

Patent surrendered: where the “Not in force since” date is the date on which IPO CZ received request for withdrawal.

Patent not in force: where the “Not in force since” date corresponds to the date of filing/ priority date

Patent not validated: where the “Not in force since” date corresponds to the date of filing / priority day
 

Why invalidation date often precedes Renewal-fees-last-paid date? It is a very common situation. EPO can also designate invalidation retrospectively and NPO might be informed about this event even a few months after the invalidation.

Note: All fees paid in favour of already invalidated patents will be returned by EPO.

E.g. Application number EP02021072, IPO CZ was informed about invalidation on December 25th 2011 (Register-last-updated column). However, invalidation was already performed on August 2nd 2011.

SPC in force: Patent itself already expired, however its SPC is in force