IP glossary
Short, clear definitions of the patent, trademark, and design terms that come up in everyday IP management. Each entry links to the Patent Cockpit feature where the term shows up in practice.
Employee Inventions Act (Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz, ArbEG)
German law that regulates rights and duties between employers and employees for inventions made on the job.
Expiry date (patent)
The date when patent protection ends and the technology enters the public domain — usually twenty years from filing.
Freedom to operate (FTO)
The legal ability to commercialize a product or process in a given market without infringing third-party patents.
Invention disclosure
The structured internal document that records a new invention before any external patent filing.
Maintenance fee (patent, renewal fee, annuity)
The periodic payment required to keep a granted patent in force, usually rising over the life of the patent.
Patent
An exclusive right granted for a technical invention, typically valid up to 20 years from filing in exchange for public disclosure.
Patent claim
The legally binding sentence in a patent that defines the scope of protection.
Patent family
A group of patent applications and granted patents that protect the same invention in different countries.
Patent nationalization
Entering the national phase from a PCT application by filing it in each country or region where patent protection is wanted.
Patent validation
The post-grant step that turns a granted European patent into a national patent in each chosen EPO member state.
PCT application
An international patent application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, giving applicants one unified procedure across more than 150 countries.
Priority application
An earlier patent filing whose date can be claimed as the official filing date for a later application covering the same invention.
Priority date
The earliest filing date claimed by a patent application — the cut-off used to assess novelty and inventive step.
Priority year
The twelve-month window after a first patent filing during which subsequent applications can still claim the original filing date.
Restriction requirement
A US patent examiner's notice that an application claims more than one distinct invention, forcing the applicant to elect one group of claims for examination.