• Patents
• About us
• Topics

Print version.

Promotion

Activities

The European Patent Office's main co-operation partners are the national intellectual property authorities - in general, the patent offices. Several programmes also involve national or regional organisations and associations of lawyers, representatives of industry, trade and culture, universities and other bodies active in the IP field. The international co-operation programmes have the following principal objectives:

• to provide guidance on building up and organising IP authorities and institutions. This involves establishing the appropriate infrastructure for administering IP rights, simplifying patent procedures, putting in place national IP enforcement systems and harmonising the legal systems of different countries within particular regions

• to train general and specialist personnel working with these authorities and institutions, making expertise available to support innovation

• to provide technical support, mainly by giving advice on information and documentation, supplying hardware, software and library stock and developing and implementing standards for information and data exchange. Nearly 80% of the world's technical knowledge is contained in patent documents

• to promote public awareness of IP as a motor of economic, social and cultural development