the european patent office at a glance christos dimopoulos head of the vice-president's office...
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The European Patent Officeat a glance
Christos Dimopoulos
Head of the Vice-President's Office
International/Legal Affairs (DG5)
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Who we are
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Locations
The EPO has offices at
five different locations.
Its headquarters are in Munich.
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Number of staff in 2010
Munich 3 718
The Hague 2 710
Berlin 274
Vienna 112
Brussels 4
Total 6 818
Around 60% are patent examiners
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Staff from 31 different countries (2010)
Country Number of staffAT Austria 237
BE Belgium 359
BG Bulgaria 35
CH Switzerland 74
CY Cyprus 8
CZ Czech Republic 20
ES Spain 447
DE Germany 1 851
DK Denmark 75
EE Estonia 7
FI Finland 49
FR France 1 225
GB United Kingdom 507
GR Greece 165
HU Hungary 29
IE Ireland 82
HR Croatia 2
Country Number of staff
IT Italy 507
LT Lithuania 4
LU Luxembourg 69
LV Latvia 5
MT Malta 2
NL Netherlands 609
SE Sweden 125
PL Poland 62
PT Portugal 87
RO Romania 115
SI Slovenia 14
SK Slovakia 15
TR Turkey 29
Others 2
Total 6 818
IS Iceland 1
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Our Strategy
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Our strategy - main features (1):
• Since its inception almost 35 years ago, the EPO is financially independent (income from fees cover all outgoings and investments)
• 38 Members States to the EPC (include all 27 members of the European Union, plus Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey). European patents are recognised in two further countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.
• Beyond the borders of Europe, the EPO is active in facilitating the protection of European patents in neighbouring countries. In 2010, the EPO signed a Validation Agreement with Morocco; similar is under discussion with Tunisia.
• The EPO is a global player. Based on its broad technical expertise, it is heavily involved in the efforts to introduce a unitary patent for Europe and to harmonise the patent system worldwide.
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Our Strategy - main Features (2):
• The EPO plays a leading role in developing and implementing electronic tools for patent searching and examination. Patent offices have for many years been satisfied users of the tools and databases set up and developed further by the EPO.
• The EPO complements the work of the national patent offices (NPOs) in Europe. The European patent system is a two-tier environment where the EPO plays the central role in the entire patent grant procedure.
• The national patent offices develop a dynamic IP and innovation policy at local level. An ambitious co-operation policy associating the EPO with the NPOs, in particular via the European Patent Network (EPN), is to be implemented to optimise co-operation between them.
• In order to maximise the potential and efficiency of its activities and to avoid duplication of work, the Office therefore concludes agreements with IP organisations such as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
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The way forward
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The way forward
In January 2011, two external studies on finance and IT commissioned by the President of the Office were discussed, both within the EPO and with its external stakeholders:
The IT study:
• confirmed the reputation of EPO's current IT systems, but
• stressed the need for the EPO to play a leading role in making the European patent system more efficient and collaborative.
The Financial study:
• confirmed that the EPO is capable of financing its medium-term projects, but
• pointed out the risks inherent in its social liabilities, e.g. its pension system.
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The way forward
In March 2011, the Administrative Council (AC) unanimously endorsed the proposals put forward by the President of the Office, based on the following scenario for boosting efficiency:
enhancing the quality of EPO products and services
controlling costs
maintaining overall fee levels
implementing effective IT tools, simplifying our processes
introducing new forms of work (e. g. part-time home working) and improving working conditions (new TH building project)
developing EPO’s leadership role in international co-operation
setting up the EPN: intensified co-operation between the EPO and the national offices of our member states.
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Making Europe the best place for innovation
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Making Europe the best place for innovation
(a European Patent can be valid in up to 40 countries
with some 600 million inhabitants)
European Patent Network
Enhanced collaboration with OHIM
Unitary Patent protection
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Improving access to patent documents
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Improving access to patent documents
Patent searching will improve as access to EPO databases improves. The EPO has the world’s most complete set of patent data and the most extensive
collection of patent-related literature (Espacenet, for example, is available to millions of users free of
charge). Three recent examples of continuing efforts :
Climate change and identifying clean-energy technologies (CETs)
Machine translation and EPO agreement with Google
Access to ITU documentation
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Simplifying the global patent system
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Simplifying the global patent system
EPO is member of the IP 5, a forum composed of the five largest patent offices in the
world (EPO plus the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and US patent offices), representing 90 % of the global patent activity.
Main IP5 goals are: eliminate unnecessary duplication
of work among the offices,
enhance patent examination efficiency and
quality, guarantee the stability of patent rights.
The EPO also enjoys direct relations with WIPO. Together they strive into making
the global patent system more user-friendly and harmonising the patenting process as much as possible.
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More information?
www.epo.org
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Thank you for your attention