(4) The owner also has the right to assign the patent, transfer it by succession and enter
into license contracts.
(5) In addition to all other rights, remedies or actions available to him, the owner of the
patent has the right to institute legal proceedings before the court of the place of the
infringement against any person who commits an infringement of the patent by performing,
without his consent, one of the acts mentioned in paragraph (3), or who performs acts that
make it probable that an infringement will be committed.
Article 8
Limitation of the Rights
Conferred by the Patent
(1) The rights deriving from the patent shall not extend
(a) to acts in relation to subject matter brought on to the market on the territory of a
member State by the owner of the patent or with his consent;
(b) to the use of objects on board foreign aircraft, land vehicles or ships that
temporarily or accidentally enter the airspace, territory or waters of a member State;
(c) to acts in relation to a patented invention that are carried out for experimental
purposes in the course of scientific and technical research;
(d) to acts performed by any person who in good faith on the filing date, or where
priority is claimed, on the priority date of the application on the basis of which the patent is
granted on the territory of a member State, was using the invention or making effective and
genuine preparations for such use, in so far as those acts are not different in nature or purpose
from the actual or planned earlier use.
(2) The right of the user referred to in paragraph (1)(d) may not be transferred or
handed on otherwise than with the business or company or the part thereof in which the use or
the preparations for use were made.
Article 9
Term of Protection
The patent shall expire at the end of the 20th calendar year following the filing date of
the application, subject to the provisions of Article 40.
Article 10
Right to the Patent
(1) The right to the patent shall belong to the inventor; the applicant shall be deemed to
be the owner of the right.
(2) Where two or more persons have made an invention jointly, the right to the patent
shall belong to them jointly.
(3) If, and to the extent that, two or more persons have made the same invention
independently of each other, the right to the patent shall belong to the one who filed the
application bearing the earliest filing date or, where priority is claimed, the earliest validly
claimed priority date, provided that the said application is not withdrawn, abandoned or
rejected.
(4) The right to the patent may be assigned or transferred by succession.