Patents are regional and are only protected in the country/region where the patent is applied. The biggest difference between European Union appearance patent and American appearance patent lies in the different fields of protection: American appearance patent is only protected in the United States; EU appearance patents can be protected in 28 EU member states.

The 28 member States of the European Union include: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.

2. The audit system and authorization time are different.

The EU's design patent adopts formal examination, while the United States' design patent examination is strict and needs substantive examination. Therefore, there is a big difference in the licensing time between the two: the licensing time of the European Union's appearance patent is 2-4 weeks, while that of the United States takes about 1.5 years.

3, the protection period is different

The protection period of EU appearance patents is longer, 25 years from the date of application; The protection period of American design patents is 15 years from the date of authorization.

4. The application fee is different.

The total cost of the design patent in the European Union from the application stage to the authorization stage is only 9800 yuan (Zhimo promises not to authorize a refund), while the cost of the design patent in the United States in the application stage is 1 1670 yuan (excluding translation fee, defense fee and authorization fee) (the above costs are Zhimo's quotation, including official fees and agency fees).

The differences between European Union appearance patents and American appearance patents are mainly reflected in the above four aspects, each with its own merits. Applicants should choose the appropriate application type according to their own situation.