FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Céline Bey and Alexis Augustin, Gowling WLG
Gowling WLG 38 avenue de l’Opéra 75 002 Paris France Tel: +33 142 993 500 Fax: +33 142 993 501
Email: paris@gowlingwlg.com Web: www.gowlingwlg.com
1. Intellectual Property Rights and Granting Procedure 1.1 Types of Intellectual Property Rights The French Intellectual Property Code (IPC) pro- vides three types of intellectual property rights for the protection of inventions: • patents; • utility certificates; and • supplementary protection certificates (SPCs). French patents arise from the filing of an applica- tion with the French Office for Intellectual Prop- erty (INPI). Similarly, a French utility certificate can be obtained for a shorter duration. SPCs are further discussed in 1.6 Further Pro- tection after Lapse of the Maximum Term . France is party to the European Patent Conven- tion (EPC) and may therefore be designated in a European patent. Since 1 June 2023, Euro- pean patents may have unitary effect. Where this unitary effect is granted, those patents are designated as “unitary patents”, and the Uni- fied Patent Court (UPC) has exclusive jurisdic-
tion over their validity and infringement. France is also party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and may consequently be designated in a PCT application. In addition, French law (Article L.151-1 et seq, French Commercial Code) protects trade secrets (ie, information that is secret, has commercial value because of its secrecy, and has been sub- ject to reasonable steps to keep it secret against its unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure). France is a statute-based jurisdiction and uses case law for the purposes of construing applica- ble statutes. The IPC contains the core of French patent law. 1.2 Grant Procedure Patents The grant procedure for both French and Euro- pean patents begins by filing an application before the INPI or the European Patent Office (EPO), respectively. As for the French procedure, the INPI examines the application within two to five months. The INPI now has the authority to refuse an applica- tion for lack of inventive step, where previously the INPI could only refuse a patent for lack of
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