European Patent Office

The European Patent Office (EPO)^{[notes 1]} is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council.^[2] The EPO acts as executive body for the Organisation^[3][4] while the Administrative Council acts as its supervisory body^[3] as well as, to a limited extent, its legislative body.^[4][5] The actual legislative power to revise the European Patent Convention lies with the Contracting States themselves when meeting at a Conference of the Contracting States.^[6]

Within the European Patent Office, examiners are in charge of studying European patent applications, filed by applicants, in order to decide whether to grant a patent for an invention. The patents granted by the European Patent Office are called European patents.

Function, status and location

The European Patent Office (EPO) grants European patents for the Contracting States to the European Patent Convention. The EPO provides a single patent grant procedure, but not a single patent from the point of view of enforcement. Hence the patents granted are not European Union patents or even Europe-wide patents, but a bundle of national patents.^[4] Besides granting European patents, the EPO is also in charge of establishing search reports for national patent applications on behalf of the patent offices of Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, and Turkey.^[7]

The European Patent Office is not a legal entity as such,^[8] but an organ of the European Patent Organisation,^[9] which has a legal personality.^[10]

The EPO headquarters are located at Munich, Germany. The European Patent Office also includes a branch in Rijswijk (a suburb of The Hague, Netherlands), sub-offices in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria and a "liaison bureau" in Brussels, Belgium. At the end of 2009, the European Patent Office had a staff of 6818 (with 3718 based in Munich, 2710 in Rijswijk, 274 in Berlin, 112 in Vienna and 4 in Brussels).^[11] The predecessor of the European Patent Office was the Institut International des Brevets or IIB.

The premises of the European Patent Office enjoy a form of extraterritoriality. In accordance with the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities,^[12] which forms an integral part of the European Patent Convention under Article 164(1) EPC, the premises of the European Patent Organisation, and therefore those of the European Patent Office, are inviolable.^[13] The authorities of the States in which the Organisation has its premises are not authorized to enter those premises, except with the consent of the President of the European Patent Office.^[14] Such consent is however "assumed in case of fire or other disaster requiring prompt protective action".^[14]

Presidents of the European Patent Office

1. Johannes Bob van Benthem (1 November 1977 - 30 April 1985), Dutch.

2. Paul Braendli (1 May 1985 - 31 December 1995), Swiss.

3. Ingo Kober (1 January 1996 - 30 June 2004), German.

4. Alain Pompidou (1 July 2004 - 30 June 2007), French.

5. Alison Brimelow (1 July 2007 - 30 June 2010), British.

6. Benoît Battistelli (from 1 July 2010), French.[15]

Management

The European Patent Office is directed by a president, who is responsible for its activities to the Administrative Council.^[16] The president also represents the European Patent Organisation.^[17] The president has therefore a dual role: representative of the European Patent Organisation and head of the European Patent Office.^[18] The President of the European Patent Office is appointed by the Administrative Council.^[19] A majority of three-quarters of the votes of the Contracting States represented and voting in the Administrative Council is required for the appointment of the President.^[20][21]

More generally, the "management of the EPO is dominated by the delegates of the contracting States in the Administrative Council," these delegates being, according to Otto Bossung, primarily guided by their national interests rather than by supranational interests such as for instance the implementation of the EU internal market.^[22]

Languages

The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German^[23] and publications including the European Patent Bulletin and Official Journal of the European Patent Office are published in all three of those languages.^[24]

Patent applications may be filed in any language^[25] provided that a translation into one of the official languages is submitted within two months.^[26] The official language that the application is filed in or translated into is taken to be the language of the proceedings^[27] and the application is published in that language.^[28] Documentary evidence may also be submitted in any language, although the EPO may require a translation.^[29]

Several Contracting States to the European Patent Convention have an official language which is not an official language of the EPO, such as Dutch, Italian or Spanish and these languages are referred to as "admissible non-EPO languages".^[30] Residents or nationals of such States may submit any documents subject to a time limit in an official language of that State^[31] and there is a shorter period of one month for filing a translation into an official language^[32] or the document is deemed not to have been filed.^[31] Many EPO fees are reduced by 20% for people who file patent application or other documents in an admissible non-EPO language and subsequently file the necessary translation.^[33]

Departments and Directorates-General

The European Patent Office includes the following departments:^[34]

• A Receiving Section, responsible for the examination on filing and the examination as to formal requirements of European patent applications
• Examining Divisions, responsible for prior art searches and the examination of European patent applications
• Opposition Divisions, responsible for the examination of oppositions against any European patent
• A Legal Division
• Boards of Appeal, responsible for the examination of appeals,
• An Enlarged Board of Appeal.

In practice, the above departments of European Patent Office are organized into five "Directorates-General" (DG), each being directed by a Vice-President: DG 1 Operations, DG 2 Operational Support, DG 3 Appeals, DG 4 Administration, and DG 5 Legal/International Affairs.

The European Patent Office does not make decisions on infringement matters. National courts have jurisdiction over infringement matters regarding European patents. Regarding the validity of European patents however, both the European Patent Office during opposition proceedings (Article 99 EPC) and national courts during nullity proceedings (Article 138 EPC) may decide to revoke a European patent. According to Sir Robin Jacob, the members of the EPO Boards of Appeal are "judges in all but name".^[35]

Activities under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

In the international procedure according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the European Patent Office acts as a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority (ISA), an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) and, with effect from 1 July 2010, as a so-called Supplementary International Searching Authority (SISA).^[36] The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides an international procedure for handling patent applications, called international applications, during the first 30 months after their first filing in any country party to the PCT. The European Patent Office does not grant "international patents," as such patents do not exist. After 30 months (or, for a few countries, after 20 months)^[37] an international application must be converted into national or regional patent applications, and then are subject to national/regional grant procedures.

As Supplementary International Searching Authority (SISA), the European Patent Office has announced that it will conduct no more than 700 supplementary international searches per year.^[38]

Online services

The EPO offers on its web site several free services, including Espacenet and Open Patent Services (OPS) for searching within its collection of patent documents, the legal texts published in its Official Journal, the European Patent Register for monitoring European patent applications, and a publication server of the European patent applications and specifications. There is also the epoline software for filing European patent applications online.

Cooperations

The EPO cooperates with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. It also works with the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in a co-operation known as the "five IP offices" or IP5.^[39]

Staff unions

Staff unions active within the EPO include the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) and the Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne - European Patent Office (FFPE-EPO).

SUEPO^[40] was born in 1979 out of the Syndicat du Personnel de l'Institut International des Brevets (SP-IIB) which was founded in 1969. SUEPO is made up of four local sections in Berlin, Munich, The Hague and Vienna and claims to have consistently about 50% of the staff of the respective sites as member.^[41]

FFPE-EPO^[42] is a staff union at the EPO, The Hague section. It was registered under Dutch law^[43] on March 7, 2008, and is affiliated with the European Civil Service Federation (French: Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne or FFPE), founded in 1962.^[44] The FFPE-EPO was set up in spite of the fact that there already was a staff union in place in EPO, The Hague, the SUEPO, because -in the words of FFPE-EPO- a need was felt for new representation with new visions, developing new ways of representing everyone's interests, including that of the EPO. An unofficial English translation of the statutes can be found on-line.^[45]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to European Patent Office.

• Official website
• Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPO or "European Patent Institute (epi)"
• Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO)
• FFPE-EPO another staff union of the European Patent Office

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