The European Patent Office

The European Patent Office is known as the EPO. It formed in 1973 when 20 states met in Munich to discuss introducing a patent procedure. It is part of the European Patent Organisation - it acts as its executive branch. The other part of the European Patent Organisation is the Administrative Council, and this agency is in charge of the supervisory functions, and deals with the laws to some extent. The Headquarters of the EPO are in Germany, in the city of Munich. There are other sub offices in Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. The premises of the EPO are impenetrable by law, except in case of emergency or disaster to provide help or assistance by the proper authorities. The EPO has thirty-eight member states. These are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Monaco, Yugoslav (Republic of Macedonia), Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, San Marino, and Turkey.

The European Patent Office grant patents as a conglomerate of national patents. It also establishes patent research reports for the countries of Belgium, France, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Greece, and Luxembourg. The structure of the EPO is based on the appointment of a President by the Administrative Council. The president will be in charge of the EPO and of the European Patent Organisation. There is also a vice president and six other members in the management committee. The official languages to submit patent applications are German, French, and English. Any translations to one of those official languages will have to be done within a period of two months. Residents of Contracting States (as per the European Patent Convention) can submit in Dutch, Italian, or Spanish, as this are considered non-EPO languages, but admissible. However, they have one month to submit a translation.

In the event of an infringement of patent, the EPO is not involved; the national courts handle the process. The EPO is part of the three countries that make the Patent Cooperation Treaty, also known as PCT - the other two are United States and Japan. There is another cooperation agreement known as IP5 or five IP offices that include the countries of Japan, Korea, China, and the United States in conjunction with the EPO.

The European Patent Academy was established to educate lawyers, judges, and patent office staff in intellectual property patent issues and to offer training. It is based in the EPO offices in Munich, Germany. The education falls into five programs - Academia, Judicial training, Innovation support, Institutional strengthening, and Professional representatives. It also has an eLearning platform system of study. On the eLearning program that can be found at the EPO site, there is an open module section available for free that anyone interested in learning information and take tutorials, can access.

The web site for the European Patent Office can be found at this link epo.org There is much information available in the site. Here you can find latest's news and updates.