EPO President Benoît Battistelli with Goethe-Institut Secretary General Johannes Ebert
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.
Under the memoranda of understanding signed by EPO
President Benoît Battistelli in Munich yesterday with Goethe-Institut Secretary
General Johannes Ebert, and on 15 March with British Council Chief Executive
Martin Davidson, the two institutes will provide German and English language
training, respectively, at their internationally-recognised high standard to
staff of national patent offices, candidates for the European qualifying
examination (i.e. future European patent attorneys) and patent judges in the EPO
member states.
President Battistelli & British Council Chief Executive Martin Davidson
"Improving the expertise and skills of the staff of the national patent offices is one of the pillars of our co-operation policy with member states," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli.
"Language is a key issue in securing the quality and efficiency of the European patent system," he said. "The new language training scheme is essential for promoting the use of the three languages, which will also be the official languages of the future unitary patent system," he added.
A similar agreement for French language training is expected to be signed in April with the Institut français.
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