News

A new study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Patent Office (EPO) -Patents and Clean Energy Technologies in Africa- found that Africa has a huge untapped potential for generating clean energy.

On an official visit to Slovakia, EPO President Benoît Battistelli, met with Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Minister of Economy Tomáš Malatinský and other representatives of government, industry and academia to discuss how to further strengthen the patent system to promote innovation and economic growth in Slovakia and Europe.

Around 300 senior representatives of industry, academia and government gathered at a two day-conference organised jointly by the EPO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Technische Universität München (TUM) to look at how to create markets out of research results.

In an official visit to Luxembourg President Benoît Battistelli met with the Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Etienne Schneider, the Head of the IP office, Lex Kaufhold, as well as with representatives of the national industry, the Business Federation of Luxembourg (FEDIL), and patent attorneys to discuss how the patent system can further encourage innovation in Luxembourg and Europe.

The EPO and the International Electrotechnical Commission have agreed to work closely together by facilitating the EPO use of IEC's standardisation documents in all phases of its patenting process.

An opposition division of the EPO has decided to revoke the European patent in the so-called "Brüstle" case in public oral proceedings held today.

The EPO has signed an agreement with the Institut français to boost French language training across Europe.

The award is presented annually to outstanding inventors in five categories. For the first time, the public is invited to cast their vote to select the winner of the Popular Prize.

During its 135th session, the Council re-elected Mr Jesper Kongstad as its Chair, for a three year mandate which will start on 1 July 2013.

This is a further milestone after the adoption of the unitary patent package in December 2012 and the signing last month of the international agreement on the Unified Patent Court.

The EPO has signed agreements on language training with the British Council and the Goethe-Institut in a bid to strengthen the use of the EPO's three official languages in those 27 member states that do not have English, French or German as official languages.

The EPO's Economic and Scientific Advisory Board has issued a statement with recommendations for improving the patent system, based on the main findings of its 2012 activities.

“The growth of filings from European businesses is a clear indication that industry here has opted to innovate its way out of the economic crisis”, EPO President Benoît Battistelli said.

"The EPO is a driving force for innovation, and thereby, for competitiveness and economic growth," he said.

The European Patent Office (EPO) welcomes the signing by EU ministers today in Brussels of an international agreement establishing a Unified Patent Court (UPC), which paves the way for the implementation of a unitary patent system in Europe.

With 63% of the filings, a clear majority came from non-European countries (2011: 62%), while the share from the 38 EPO member states was 37% (2011: 38%).

The EPO has revoked the Amazon “Gift order” patent after holding public oral proceedings in a first-instance opposition procedure.

The EPO and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today launched the Cooperative Patent Classification scheme (CPC), a global classification system for patent documents.

The EPO welcomed the adoption by the European Parliament in Strasbourg today of two draft regulations on the creation of the unitary patent, hailing it as a historic achievement.

Improving the exchange of data between the two offices and enhancing patent quality globally were two of the main topics in focus at the annual bilateral meeting of the European Patent Office (EPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), which took place yesterday in Brussels.