What the fields in a patent or SPC record mean: priority, filing, publication, grant, designated states, status and the dates that matter

The dates, in the order they happen

Priority date (INID 30, 31, 32, 33). The date of the first application for the invention anywhere in the world. A later application in another office within twelve months can claim that date, and novelty and inventive step are judged as at the priority date. It is not the date the term runs from. Commercially it matters for one reason: it tells you how old the invention is, and so roughly when the patent will expire even before you find the filing date (filing is at most a year later).

Filing date (22). The date the application was filed at the office that granted the patent. For a European patent that came through the PCT, it is the international filing date. The twenty-year term is counted from this date, so expiry is filing date plus twenty years, less any lapse. On a European patent all the national parts share it.

Publication date (43 for the application, 45 for the grant). Applications are published eighteen months after the priority date, whether or not they will be granted; the A-publication is when competitors first see the claims. The B-publication is the granted text. Between the two the applicant has only provisional protection.

Grant date. The date the grant was published, when the patent becomes enforceable. In Europe it typically arrives three to five years after filing, sometimes much later. It starts the nine-month opposition window at the EPO. Grant does not change the expiry date.

Expiry date. Rarely printed; calculated as filing date plus twenty years. A register may instead show the date of the last renewal paid or the date the right ceased. Before relying on it, check that renewal fees have been paid (the “in force” status) and that no court or opposition decision has shortened the life of the right.

The identity fields

Country or office (19). Where the right exists. A European patent is examined and granted once by the EPO and then exists as a bundle of national patents in the states where it was validated, written as EP (UK), EP (DE), EP (FR) and so on, or since June 2023 as a single unitary patent for the participating states. “EP” on its own is therefore an application route, not a place where a product can be sold or stopped; the country is where the question is answered.

Numbers (11, 21). The publication number is the one most people quote, with a kind code: EP 2 345 678 B1 is a granted European patent, A1 or A2 the published application (with or without the search report), B2 a specification amended after opposition, B3 after limitation. National numbers follow their own patterns: GB 2 500 000 B; DE 10 2004 000 000 B4 for a German national grant and DE 60 2011 000 000 T2 for the German translation of a European patent; FR 2 900 000; WO 2011/123456 for an international (PCT) publication. The application number (21) is different from the publication number and is what the register is keyed on.

Applicant, proprietor, inventor (71, 72, 73). The applicant files; the proprietor (grantee, owner) holds the granted right; the inventors are the people. Assignments change the proprietor and are recorded, often late, so the register’s owner can lag reality by months. For a product question the proprietor is who can sue; the originator company on the pack is sometimes a licensee.

Title and classification (54, 51). The title is often vague by design. The International Patent Classification places pharmaceutical patents under A61K (preparations) and A61P (therapeutic activity), with C07 for the chemistry; it is the best way to find secondary patents the title hides.

Designated states (84) and validation. At filing, a European application designates the contracting states (today, all of them by default). That is not the same as having a patent there: after grant the proprietor must validate in each chosen state, within three months, usually by filing a translation and paying a fee, and then pay that state’s renewal fees. A patent “designating” thirty-eight states may be in force in five. The designated-states list says where the right could exist; the national registers say where it does.

Related applications (61 to 67). A divisional (62) is carved out of an earlier application and keeps its filing and priority dates; a product’s later patents are often divisionals that expire on the same day as their parent. Continuations are a US concept and do not exist at the EPO.

Status words, and what each means for a product

Status on the register	Meaning	Can it block a product?
Pending, filed, under examination	Application not yet granted	Not yet; provisional rights only once granted
Published	Application made public at 18 months	Not yet
Granted, in force	Patent exists and fees are paid	Yes, in this country
Opposed, opposition pending	Validity challenged at the EPO within 9 months of grant	Yes, until the opposition succeeds
Limited	Claims narrowed by the proprietor	Yes, within the narrower claims
Lapsed, ceased, dead	Renewal fee not paid; the right has ended early	No (restoration is possible for a short period)
Expired	Term reached	No
Revoked, annulled, nullified	Cancelled by the EPO or a court, with effect from the start	No, in the country where revoked
Withdrawn, refused, deemed withdrawn	Application ended before grant	No
Opted out (UPC)	European patent removed from the Unified Patent Court’s jurisdiction	Unchanged; it decides which court hears the case

The most expensive confusions are lapsed read as expired (a lapsed patent can occasionally be restored) and revoked in one country read as revoked everywhere (revocation by a national court touches only that country; revocation in EPO opposition touches every validation).

The SPC fields

A supplementary protection certificate has its own entry on each national register, linked to the patent.

SPC number. National formats: SPC/GB13/021 (UK), 12 2013 000 021 (Germany), 13C0021 (France), 300612 (Netherlands), and so on. The two-digit year is the application year, not the grant year.

Basic patent (68). The patent the certificate extends. The SPC falls if that patent is revoked.

Product (95). The active ingredient, or combination, as authorised, which is what the certificate protects. Not the brand name, and not the formulation.

First authorisation in the EEA (93) and first national authorisation (92). The marketing authorisation number and date that set the term, and the authorisation in that country that supports the application. For centrally authorised products the date that counts is the date the holder was notified of the decision (the notification-date rule), usually a few days after the decision itself.

Application date, grant date. The SPC must be applied for within six months of the authorisation or the grant of the patent, whichever is later. An applied-for SPC that has not yet been granted is shown as pending; most are granted without dispute.

SPC start and expiry (94). Starts the day the basic patent expires; runs for first EU authorisation minus filing minus five years, capped at five; expiry is the date to plan from. Where a paediatric extension has been granted, the register shows the extended expiry or a separate entry for the extension (six months).

SPC status. Applied for, granted, in force, lapsed (annual fees unpaid), expired, withdrawn, rejected, invalid (by a court). A product can have an SPC in force in one country, lapsed in a second and never applied for in a third.

The two dates that decide

Of everything above, the basic patent’s expiry (filing plus twenty) and the SPC expiry (plus any paediatric extension) are the dates that set when a product opens up in a country; the rest tell you whether to trust them. MPA Search holds both for each product and country, with the register reference and the status words as the register states them.