2016

We are deeply shocked and saddened by the horrific attack which took place at a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday

Additional measures now operational for visitors in the Isar building Munich and in The Hague

The Administrative Council yesterday appointed Carl Josefsson (Sweden) as the first President of the Boards of Appeal (BoA). A new location for the BoA was also approved by the Member States.

EPO President Benoît Battistelli was in Zagreb on 9 December for a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Croatia’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

Decision follows the publication of European Commission’s notice on the patentability of plants and animals obtained by essentially biological processes

The role of patents in helping policy-makers meet the EU's climate objectives was the subject of an event organised by the EPO on 7 December at the European Parliament in Brussels.

EPO President Benoît Battistelli met with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Kris Peeters today in Brussels to discuss joint efforts to enhance patent protection and the support for innovation in Belgium and across Europe.

In its order for decision G1/15, related to the question of partial priorities and so-called toxic divisionals, the Enlarged Board of the EPO held that a generic claim encompassing alternative subject matter may not be refused partial priority, provided the alternative subject matter has been directly, at least implicitly, and unambiguously disclosed in the priority document.

The Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be ratified by the United Kingdom, according to a statement by UK Minister for IP, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, at the EU Competitiveness Council in Brussels.

The Principality of Monaco hosted the EPO's Online Services User Day this week in Monte Carlo. The event was attended by 120 participants from 19 EPO member states, many of them employed in IP departments of innovating companies, as well as patent attorneys.

The EPO and the Principality of Monaco have signed an agreement under which the EPO will carry out searches for national patent applications on behalf of the Monegasque patent office.

President Benoît Battistelli has outlined the four cornerstones of the Office's patent information policy in his opening speech at the EPO Patent Information Conference, currently underway in Madrid.

The EPO and the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) today published their second EU-wide study of the impact of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on the European economy in terms of GDP, employment, wages and trade.

The European Patent Office and the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Service of Brazil have agreed to increase their co-operation in the field of patents.

Staff members, staff representatives, trade union and the EPO's Administrative Council gathered to discuss the outcome of recent studies on the EPO's social and financial situation, and occupational health and working conditions.

Three Memoranda of Understanding were signed with the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) relating to Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), the extension of EPOQUE Net (the EPO's professional online patent search tool) until the end of 2018, and a two-year work plan covering CPC training, data exchange, the future Espacenet and outreach activities.

The visit was held on the occasion of the annual EPO-SIPO Heads of Offices meeting, this year hosted by the EPO in Europe.

Technical and legal experts from the EPO and the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) took part in a joint workshop to exchange information on plant-related patents and plant variety rights.

A delegation from the Kingdom of Cambodia visited the EPO in Munich today to discuss developments in the European and Cambodian patent systems.

The staff and management of the European Patent Office were deeply saddened to hear the news of the heavy earthquake that hit central Italy early Wednesday morning.

The staff and management of the European Patent Office are deeply shocked and saddened by the news of the terrible attack which took place in Munich on Friday, 22 July 2016.

The EPO has published its Social Report 2015, which provides a comprehensive overview of staff and working conditions at the Office.

The European Patent Office - its employees, managers and all staff - are deeply shocked and saddened by the terrorist attack which took place in Nice on Thursday, 14 July 2016.

The EPO signed two agreements at the end of June with the national patent offices of Latvia and Malta to improve conditions for small businesses from these countries seeking to protect their inventions through patents.

At a conference organized by Premier Cercle hosted at the European Patent Office's headquarters in Munich today, leading experts gathered to discuss the latest state of play of the Unitary Patent package and the potential implications of the vote in the UK in favour of leaving the European Union.

Approved with an overwhelming majority of votes the member states of the European Patent Organisation accepted a comprehensive reform proposal of the Office to strengthen the perception of the BoA's independence, in particular by increasing their managerial autonomy, and to improve their efficiency.

The EPO and the Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) have launched today their joint Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme to enable accelerated treatment of patent applications in both regions.

From 1 July 2016, applicants will be able to enjoy a 100% refund on their examination fee for any application they withdraw, or which is refused or deemed withdrawn, before substantive examination has begun.

The staff and management of the European Patent Office are shocked and deeply saddened by the news of the terrible attacks at Istanbul airport on Tuesday night.

The Office underlines that the outcome of the referendum has no consequence on the membership of the UK to the European Patent Organisation, nor on the effect of the European Patents in the UK.

EPO President Benoit Battistelli has today sent the following message of condolence to Michelle Lee, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), following recent events in Orlando

The streamlined opposition procedure will see the duration of opposition cases drop to just 15 months for straightforward cases

Now in its 11th year, the award is presented annually by the EPO to recognise outstanding inventors from Europe and around the world, who have made an exceptional contribution to social development, technological progress and economic growth.

The independent survey, carried out by IAM magazine, found the EPO yet again performed best among the world’s five largest patent offices (IP5) for patent quality and service for the fifth annual survey in a row.

The meetings took stock of developments in key areas such as the Global Dossier, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), Common Citation Document (CCD) and patent harmonisation to name but a few areas.

Users invited to provide feedback on demo mode of online procedure for registering patents with unitary effect.

Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office, was in Casablanca (Morocco) on Monday, 16 May, attending a conference on "Patent validation and technology transfer - issues and initiatives".

Representatives of national patent offices and patent information centres from 37 countries across Europe and beyond are gathering in Helsinki this week to explore how to improve services to companies, universities, and inventors in support of innovation.

The 15 finalists for the European Inventor Award 2016, announced today by the EPO, have advanced technology, and helped generate economic value and employment in Europe and around the world.

EPO President Benoît Battistelli has yesterday met with a delegation from the Institute of Professional Representatives (epi) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the training of professional representatives.

The UK's Minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, and EPO President Benoît Battistelli met in London on 7 April to discuss recent developments in patents in Europe and around the globe.

Following a strike ballot, it is to be expected that some EPO staff members will exercise their right to strike on 7 April 2016.

The staff and the management of the European Patent Office are deeply shocked and saddened by the abhorrent terrorist attacks which took place in Brussels today, 22 March 2016.

The reduction applies to searches carried out by the EPO on national filings by small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and independent inventors.

The number of European patent filings grew again in 2015 reaching a new high of nearly 279 000 (in 2014: 274 000, +1.6%). The figure is an indicator of the growing demand for patent protection from businesses worldwide.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has formally recognised the role of trade unions as social partners through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed today with FFPE-EPO, a European civil service trade union.

On the occasion of a visit to the EPO in Munich by Grigory Petrovich Ivliev, the new Director General of Rospatent (the Russian Federal Service for IP), the two institutions have committed to further strengthen their co-operation.

The two organisations agreed to further strengthen their relationship through the exchange of information in the area of plant-related patents and plant variety rights. The Arrangement was signed in Munich, where the CPVO delegation, led by President Martin Ekvad, was welcomed by EPO President Benoît Battistelli.

The EPO is pleased to announce the launch of PATSTAT Online, a new, web-based interface that enables you to run queries in PATSTAT, the EPO's statistical database for patents, and to perform statistical analyses.

The EPO has launched a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme with Colombia.

UAB BERENT Research Baltic is currently conducting telephone interviews, asking users general questions about search and examination and specific questions on patent applications searched in 2015. For the patent administration part, the survey will be done online.

Yann Ménière is professor of economics on leave from MINES ParisTech, where he was leading the Chair on "IP and Markets for Technology" until joining the EPO.

It is with great sadness that I received the news of the death of Artur Fischer on 27 January at the age of 96 in his hometown of Waldachtal (Black Forest). For his groundbreaking achievements, the European Patent Office honoured Artur Fischer with the European Inventor Award 2014 in the category "Lifetime achievement".

Against the backdrop of rising demand for patent protection in Europe, the EPO's 4 200 patent examiners delivered a record total of 365 000 "products" (such as searches and examinations), an increase of 14% compared to 2014.

The revised PACE programme streamlines the existing scheme, improves responsiveness and better aligns it with the EPO’s workload prioritisation initiative Early Certainty from Search (ECfS).