How to file a European patent application

Three ways to start a European application

1. A direct European first filing

You file at the EPO without an earlier application. The filing date becomes the priority date for later filings elsewhere. Online filing through MyEPO costs less than paper (€135 against €285). The EPO gives a filing date once it has an indication that a European patent is sought, details identifying the applicant, and a description or a reference to an earlier application (Rule 40(1)). Claims can follow later: if none were filed, the EPO invites you to file them within 2 months (Rule 58).

2. A European filing that claims priority

If you first filed in a Paris Convention or WTO country, such as a US provisional or an Indian application, you have 12 months from that first filing to file at the EPO and claim its priority (Article 87(1) EPC). The priority declaration and the certified copy of the earlier application are due within 16 months of the priority date (Rules 52(2) and 53(1)). The EPO fetches the copy itself where it has access to it through a digital exchange, so many applicants never send one. You must also file the search results of the earlier office (Rule 141(1)), unless the EPO is exempted from asking, as it is for first filings in the US, Japan, Korea, China, the UK and several European offices.

3. Euro-PCT: entering the European phase at 31 months

A PCT application that designates the EPO enters the European phase within 31 months of the priority date (Rule 159(1)). By then you file any translation into English, French or German, name the documents to proceed on, pay the filing fee, request examination and pay the examination fee, and pay the designation fee and 3rd-year renewal fee if they have already fallen due. If the EPO was not the International Searching Authority, it draws up a supplementary European search and you pay the search fee too. Claims fees for claims beyond 15 are also due at 31 months (Rule 162). After entry, the EPO gives you 6 months to answer the international written opinion or to amend before the supplementary search (Rule 161).

The PCT route delays the European costs by up to 19 months compared with a direct filing at 12 months, which suits applicants who are still deciding where to protect the invention.

What the application contains

Article 78(1) EPC lists five parts: a request for grant (EPO Form 1001), a description, one or more claims, any drawings referred to in the description or claims, and an abstract. The Implementing Regulations set the rules for each.

Description (Rule 42)

Rule 42(1) sets the content and, by default, the order: the technical field; the background art, preferably citing documents; the invention as claimed, stated so that the technical problem and its solution can be understood, with any advantageous effects; a brief description of the figures; at least one way of carrying out the invention in detail; and, where it is not obvious, how the invention is industrially applicable. The problem-and-solution framing matters because the EPO assesses inventive step with the problem-solution approach, and you cannot add matter later beyond the application as filed (Article 123(2)).

Claims (Rule 43) and the two-part form

Claims define the protection in terms of technical features. Wherever appropriate, Rule 43(1) asks for the two-part form: a preamble with the features that, in combination, are already known from the closest prior art, then a characterising portion that starts with "characterised in that" or "characterised by" and states what is new. For example:

1. A bicycle brake comprising a lever (2), a cable (4) and a calliper (6) acting on the wheel rim, characterised in that the calliper (6) carries a sensor (8) that measures the braking force.

Rule 43(2) allows only one independent claim per category (product, process, apparatus or use), with three exceptions: interrelated products, different uses, and alternative solutions that one claim cannot cover. Reference signs from the drawings go in brackets after the features (Rule 43(7)). Each claim beyond 15 costs €290, and each beyond 50 costs €720 (Rule 45). Since the Enlarged Board's decision G 1/24 (June 2025), the description and drawings are always consulted when the claims are interpreted, so terms used in the claims should mean the same thing in the description. Our guide on how to write patent claims covers claim structure in more depth.

Drawings

Older guides cite Rule 46 for drawings. It was deleted on 1 February 2023; the same requirements now sit in Article 1 of the Decision of the President of 25 November 2022, made under Rule 49(2). Drawings are black lines without colour, within a usable area of 26.2 cm by 17 cm, with lettering at least 0.32 cm high, no text beyond a few keywords, and figures numbered in Arabic numerals. Flow sheets and diagrams count as drawings. See our AI patent drawings page for help preparing figures.

Abstract (Rule 47)

The abstract gives the title, a concise summary of the technical field, the problem, the gist of the solution and the main use, preferably in no more than 150 words (Rule 47). Name the figure to publish with it. The abstract serves only as technical information (Article 85), so it cannot support later amendments or define the scope of protection.

Filing languages and translations

The EPO's official languages are English, French and German. You may file in any language, but a translation into one of the three is due within 2 months of filing, and the application is deemed withdrawn without it (Article 14(2) EPC, Rule 6(1)). The language you file in, or translate into, becomes the language of the proceedings for the whole case. At the end of examination you file the claims in the other two official languages (Rule 71(3)), and the patent is published with all three versions of the claims (Article 14(6)).

Small entities resident in an EPC state with an official language other than English, French or German, such as Italy, Spain or Poland, get 30% off the filing fee and examination fee if they file in that language (Article 14(4), Rule 7a(1)).

The EPO process from filing to grant

1. Filing and fees. Pay the filing fee and search fee within 1 month of filing, or the application is deemed withdrawn (Article 78(2), Rule 38(1)). Claims fees are due within 1 month of filing the first set of claims. The page fee applies from the 36th page.
2. Search and the extended European search report. The search division cites the prior art and issues an opinion on whether the application and invention meet the EPC. Together they form the extended European search report. The EPO commits to issuing it within 6 months of filing and averaged five and a half months in 2024 (OJ EPO 2025, A69). For a first filing, that is in time to decide on foreign filings before the 12-month priority year ends.
3. Publication at 18 months. The EPO publishes the application 18 months from the filing date or the earliest priority date, or earlier on request (Article 93(1)). The search report is usually published with it. From publication, anyone can read the file in the European Patent Register.
4. Request for examination. You have until 6 months after the European Patent Bulletin mentions the publication of the search report to request examination and pay the examination fee (Rule 70(1)) and to pay the designation fee (Rule 39(1)). The request is a box on Form 1001, so it is usually made at filing; only the fee waits. In the same 6 months you must reply to the search opinion, with arguments or amendments, or the application is deemed withdrawn (Rule 70a).
5. Examination and Article 94(3) communications. If the examining division finds the application does not yet meet the EPC, it sends a communication under Article 94(3) with reasons and a period to reply, usually 4 months. This repeats as often as needed. An unanswered communication means the application is deemed withdrawn (Article 94(4)). Examination can end in oral proceedings, now usually by video conference. The free PACE programme asks the EPO to issue each examination action within 3 months; since 1 February 2026 PACE covers examination only.
6. Intention to grant under Rule 71(3). When the division is ready to grant, it sends the text it intends to grant. Within 4 months you pay the fee for grant (€1,135), pay claims fees if the text has more than 15 claims and they were not paid before, and file translations of the claims into the other two official languages (Rule 71(3)-(5)). Doing so counts as approving the text. Missing any of these means the application is deemed withdrawn (Rule 71(7)), though further processing is available.
7. Grant. The decision to grant takes effect on the date the mention of grant is published in the European Patent Bulletin (Article 97(3)). Renewal fees to the EPO stop with the fee for the year of that mention (Article 86(2)). The term is 20 years from the filing date (Article 63(1)).
8. Opposition within 9 months. Any third party can oppose the patent at the EPO within 9 months of the mention of grant, for a fee of €880 (Article 99(1)). One opposition attacks the patent in every state where it has effect. It is the cheapest central way to revoke a European patent, so monitor the Bulletin for patents that affect you.

After grant: validation, the London Agreement and the unitary patent

A granted European patent is a bundle of national patents. It takes effect in each state only once you meet that state's requirements, which may include a translation filed within at least 3 months of the mention of grant (Article 65 EPC). The EPO has 40 member states, the newest being the Republic of Moldova from 1 June 2026, plus Bosnia and Herzegovina as an extension state and Morocco, Tunisia, Cambodia, Georgia and Laos as validation states (EPO member states). Extension and validation states are paid for separately.

The London Agreement cuts those translation costs. Its 23 states either waive translation entirely, because they share an official language with the EPO (Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and others), or accept the patent in the EPO language they prescribe and ask at most for the claims in their own language (the Netherlands, the Nordic states and others). States outside it, such as Spain, Italy and Poland, still require a full translation for validation.

The alternative is the unitary patent. Within one month of the mention of grant you can ask the EPO to register unitary effect, which gives one patent with one renewal fee for the 18 EU states that currently take part, enforced before the Unified Patent Court. You validate the same patent nationally for the states outside the system, such as the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Poland. After grant, renewal fees go to each national office, or to the EPO for a unitary patent.

EPO fees in 2026

These are the fees in the Rules relating to Fees in force from 1 April 2026. The EPO usually adjusts fees each April, so check the date on any table you rely on. All amounts are in euro.

Renewal fees for a pending application

Renewal fees are due to the EPO from the 3rd year, counted from the filing date, on the last day of the month of each anniversary (Article 86(1), Rule 51(1)). Late payment within 6 months adds 50% (Rule 51(2)). For a Euro-PCT application, the years still count from the international filing date.

What a typical application costs in official fees

For a direct online filing with up to 35 pages and 15 claims, the fees from filing to grant are €135 + €1,595 + €720 + €2,010 + €1,135 = €5,595. If grant comes in the 5th year, add the renewal fees for years 3 to 5 (€2,660). Each claim over 15 adds €290. Attorney fees for drafting and prosecution, the claim translations and national validation are extra and usually cost more than the EPO fees.

The micro-entity reduction

Since 1 April 2024, micro-entities pay 30% less on the filing fee (including page fees), the search fee, the examination fee, the designation fee, the grant fee and the renewal fees before grant (Rule 7a(3) EPC, Article 14(1) of the Rules relating to Fees). Claims fees and the opposition fee are not reduced. The conditions, from Rule 7a and the EPO notice of 25 January 2024:

• The applicant is a microenterprise (fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million, under Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC), a natural person, a non-profit organisation, a university or a public research organisation. Nationality and residence do not matter.
• The applicant has filed fewer than five European or Euro-PCT applications in the five years before the filing date or European phase entry of this one (Rule 7a(4)).
• Every co-applicant qualifies (Rule 7a(5)), and the conditions are met on the day each fee is paid (Rule 7a(6)).
• The applicant declares the status by ticking the box on Form 1001 or Form 1200, or on Form 1011, at the latest when the fee is paid.

A realistic timeline

For a direct first filing. Months run from the filing date, or from the priority date where one is claimed.

The EPO reports a mean of 24.2 months from the start of examination to grant for standard cases in 2025 (EPO examination statistics). Examination rarely starts before the request deadline, about two years after filing, so a standard application is typically granted around four years after filing. A clean reply to the search opinion and a PACE request can shorten that considerably; a long dispute with the examiner or oral proceedings can lengthen it.

More EPO guides

• Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India

  37 CFR 1.84, the EPO rules that replaced Rule 46 EPC, and Indian rule 15, compared side by side.

• How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India

  Claim structure and worked examples, then the claim rules and fees at the USPTO, the EPO and the Indian Patent Office, side by side.

• The Unitary Patent and the UPC, explained

  The 18 countries covered, renewal fees, the UPC opt-out, and when classic validation is the better choice.

All guides, by patent office