News

The European Patent Organisation will welcome its 38th member state on 1 October 2010.

EPO President Benoît Battistelli highlighted the role the patent system can play in providing information on green technologies in a keynote speech at the DPMA last week.

We are now accepting proposals for the European Inventor Award 2011. The closing date for entries has been extended to 30 September 2010.

Hearing on the "broccoli and tomato" cases before the European Patent Office's Enlarged Board of Appeal on 20 and 21 July 2010

A French national, he succeeds Alison Brimelow of the UK, who has headed the EPO since July 2007.

The outgoing EPO President gave her final speech to the Administrative Council today.

The Director General of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office was unanimously elected as Chairman at the Administrative Council's 124th meeting.

The EPO President received the award from Managing IP magazine at a ceremony in London yesterday.

71% of corporate counsels say the quality of European patents is "excellent or very good" according to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters and IAM magazine.

The EPO's new classification scheme for climate change mitigation technologies was presented to the public for the first time at a UNFCCC side event on patents and clean energy in Bonn this week.

Delegates at the PATLIB2010 conference discussed how patent information centres in the EPO's member states can adapt their services to the needs of today's user community.

Today the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO handed down its opinion on referral G3/08, taking the opportunity to set out and confirm the approach of the EPO regarding the patentability of computer programs under the European Patent Convention (EPC).

Albania becomes the 37th member state of the EPO. European patents are now valid in up to 40 countries and reach a market of about 570 million people.

Speakers debated ways to encourage the development of environmentally-friendly technologies on the final day of the European Patent Forum 2010.

Delegates at the European Patent Forum in Madrid discussed measures to keep European industries competitive in emerging clean energy markets.

Wolfgang Krätschmer, who discovered a whole new field of research in physics, took home the trophy in the Lifetime Achievement category.

Two days before the European Inventor Awards 2010, we hear from the nominees in all categories how they reacted to the news that they were in the running for the prize.

Against the general downward trend, there was a double-digit increase in filings in wind and water power, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy and biomass in 2009.

The heads of the world's five largest IP offices - the EPO, JPO, KIPO, SIPO and USPTO - met in Guilin, China, on 15 and 16 April.

New rules concerning search and examination at the EPO, and time limits for the filing of divisional applications enter into force on 1 April 2010