The London agreement came into force in 2008 and dramatically reduced the cost of European patent protection by providing that translations of European patents were no longer necessarily required by states party to the agreement. The latest news is that …
You can claim to have a “patent pending” as soon as you, or your patent attorney, have filed, or even just posted your patent application – see “How quickly can I get a patent pending” – although some would advise …
The European patent filing system was created, back in the 1970s, to make it less expensive to gain patent protection across Europe than it had been previously when inventors had no choice but to file applications, duly translated in full …