Activities of the

European Patent Office

Jeremy Philpott WIPO - ICC, 16 September 2008

Contents

• Introduction to the European Patent Office

• Introduction to the European Patent Academy

• Innovation Support

• ip4inno

• EPO PD 51 - International Co-operation

The European Patent Office

Our mission

As the patent office for Europe, we support innovation, competitiveness and economic growth across Europe through a commitment to high quality and efficient services delivered under the European Patent Convention.

European Patent Convention covers 34 member states

European Patent Office

The European Patent Office

Filed applications

Munich 3 514

The Hague 2 579

Berlin 283

Vienna 119

Brussels 4

Total 6 499Around 60% are patent examiners

Staff (Dec 2007)

European Patent Office

European Patent Academy

• Founded in 2005; based in Munich

• Promotes and supports patent-related IP

training in Europe

• Works in partnership with national patent

offices, WIPO and other agencies

European Patent Academy - audiences

• Innovation Support - business advisors et al

• Academia - university staff & students / TTOs

• Patent Professionals - EQE

• Judicial training - judges and litigators

• Institutional Strengthening - NPOs et al

• Materials, Media & Technology

Innovation Support

• Seminars & Workshops

• "Inventors' Handbook" - online

• "Handbook of European Intellectual Property

Management" - publication

ip4inno - basics

• European Commission project, from 1

January 2007 to 31 December 2008

• €2 million

• Objective is to train business advisors &

TTOs in IP topics, who in turn will train other

advisors and SMEs

• Seven work packages

• Nineteen consortium partners (institutions)

ip4inno – consortium partners

• European Business and Innovation Centres Network

• CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg• FUNDITEC, Spain• IWT - Flanders• Fraunhofer TEG• IEEPI, Strasbourg• METU - Technopolis, Turkey• Fundación EOI, Spain• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid• University of Alicante

• European Patent Office• Hungarian Patent Office• Portuguese Patent & TM

Office• National Board of Patents &

Registration of Finland• Spanish Patent Office• INPI, France• State IP Office of Croatia• Turkish Patent Office• Danish Patent Office

WP1

WP2

WP4iMS

WP3

WP5 WP6 WP7WP4ii

• MS = Input from member states

• WP1 = General Admin

• WP2 = SME survey

• WP3 = Web platform

WP4 = (i) harvest materialWP4 = (ii) create modulesWP5 = Train trainersWP6 = Pilot trainingWP7 = Evaluation

ip4inno – Work Packages and Leaders

WP1 General administration, budget management etc. EPO (PD 5.1)WP2 European survey of SME needs. IEEPI1

WP3 Web-based platform for the training materials developed in WP4. EPO (PD 0.8)

WP4 (i) Harvest existing IP training material from the member states; & (ii) create teaching modules therewith. EPO (PD 5.4)

WP5 Use material to train trainers; 40 events (each of 1-3 days) in 20 countries. EBN2

WP6 Pilot training programme to prove that those trained in WP5 can train others effectively. HPO3

WP7 Evaluation. University of Alicante

1 www.ieepi.org 2 www.ebn.be 3 www.hpo.hu

WP4 (ii) Module Topics

Day One Industrial Prop. Day Two Unregistered IP

module 1A

Patent basics- abstract, description, drawings, claims,

- filing, search, publication, examination "A" & "B", grant, renewals

- National; EPO; PCT; costs

- role of the patent attorney

- Utility models; Plant varieties

module 2A

- copyright: what it does and does not protect; infringement; collective licensing societies

- database right

- software

- "reputation" and common law trade marks

- unregistered designs

- semiconductor topography right

module 1B

Other Industrial Property- trade marks, RTMs, OHIM, Madrid Protocol, PGIs; domain names

- Designs, OHIM

module 2B"Soft IP"- Know-how, trade secrecy, confidentiality

- Restrictive covenants

- "First Mover Advantage"

- "business methods"

WP4 (ii) Module Topics

Day Three - Patent Info Day Four - commercialisation

module 3A

- technical information

- commercial intelligence

- classification schemes

- decision-making

- patent-mapping

- different database providers

module 4A

- licensing-in & -out

- contracts; ownership

- spin-outs

- selling & buying technology

- valuing IP; accounting for IP

- patent strategies

module 3B

Espacenet Tutorial

- ECLA; IPC ed.8

- keywords; searching

- interpreting resultsm

odule 4B

Building a business

- drafting a business plan

- sources of finance

- marketing innovation

WP4 (ii) Module Topics

Day Five Day Six

module 5A

Enforcement

- Mediation and ADR

- Litigation; infringement & revocation

- counterfeiting & piracy

module 6A

Issues by Sector

- Software & telecomms

- Biotech

- “Creative industries”

module 5B

Problem Workshops- several fictional IP problems in a business scenario to test the knowledge of the audience

module 6B

How to get IP information, awareness and training to SMEs.

"Selling the message"

PD 51 - International Co-operation

• Supports a range of projects, bilateral and

multilateral, with other countries.

• Some work with current and future member

states of the European Patent Organisation

(e.g. expansion of INPI's "Pre-diagnostic")

• Other projects, e.g. "Trilateral" (EPO, JPO &

USPTO); and with China.

Thank you for your attention

Jeremy Philpott European Patent Academy

jphilpott@epo.org European Patent Office

+49 89 2399 5405 www.epo.org

www.ip4inno.eu