Patent
The patent ensures legal protection of inventions by granting a better position to the owner of invention compared to that of rivals in the market of products and technology.
The owner of invention has an exclusive right to exploit the inventive technical solution devised in the patent application, but the period and the territorial validity of patent protection are not unlimited. The patent protection is valid up to 20 years started from the day on that the patent application was filed and solely in the countries where the protection was granted.
Hungarian patent may be obtained by national or European application or by an application submitted in the framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provided that the application and the invention comply with requirements set out in laws and regulations.
National procedure European procedure PCTAn international (PCT or European) application can be filed from a Hungarian national application, no later than 12 months from the priority of the national application. The granting of an international application is different according to the PCT and European procedures:
- In the case of a PCT application, the national (substantive) phases must be initiated in the selected/designated countries within 30 or 31 months from the priority date of the application after receiving the opinion of the PCT searching authority, and will conclude with an approval if the application complies with the relevant national legal requirements;
- In the case of a European application, if the application complies with the legal requirements, the European Patent Office (EPO) will grant the application. Within 3 months of the grant, protection can be validated in the countries of the European Patent Convention through a simple national validation procedure.
Both types of international applications can be initiated by submitting an application to the HIPO.
Other procedures in connection with patent protection fall also under the competence of Hungarian Intellectual Property Office
Other proceduresThe Board of Experts on Industrial Property operating at the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office gives opinions on the debated legal issues arisen within Hungary in connection with the industrial property, by mandate or upon request of court.
In the absence of a provision of an international treaty to the contrary, foreign applicants shall be represented by an authorised patent attorney or an attorney-at-law in all patent matters within the competence of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office.
The possibility of searching published patent documents is open to everybody. By searching such documents substantial information helping the technical development may be gained.
Hungarian laws and regulations