From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The European Patent Organisation (EPO or EPOrg^[1] in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, which is one of the two organs of the organisation^[2]) is a public international organisation created in 1977 to grant patents in Europe under the European Patent Convention (EPC) of 1973.^[3][4][5] The European Patent Organisation has its seat at Munich, Germany,^[6] and has administrative and financial autonomy.^[5]

The European Patent Organisation is not legally bound to the European Union and has several members which are not themselves EU states.

The evolution of the Organisation is inherently linked to the European Patent Convention. See European Patent Convention for the history of the European Patent system as set up by the European Patent Convention and operated by the European Patent Office.

EPO headquarters at Munich

The European Patent Organisation has two organs:^[7] the European Patent Office, which acts as its executive body,^[4][3] and the Administrative Council, which acts as its legislative body.^[8][3]

The European Patent Office (EPO or EPOff^[1] in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Organisation) grants European patents for the Member States of the European Patent Convention. The EPO provides a single patent grant procedure, but not yet a single patent from the point of view of enforcement. Hence the patents granted are not European Community patents or even Europe-wide patents, but a bundle of national patents.^[3]

The European Patent Office is not a legal entity as such,^[9] but an organ of the European Patent Organisation, ^[2] which has a legal personality.^[10]

The EPOff headquarters are located at Munich, Germany. The European Patent Office also includes a branch in Rijswijk (a suburb of The Hague, Netherlands), sub-offices in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria and a "liaison bureau" in Brussels, Belgium. At the end of 2006, the European Patent Office had a staff of 6319^[11] (with about 3400 based in Munich, 2500 in Rijswijk, 300 in Berlin and 120 in Vienna)^{[citation needed]}.

The European Patent Office is directed by a president, who is responsible for its activities to the Administrative Council.^[12] The president also represents the European Patent Organisation.^[13] The president has therefore a dual role: representative of the European Patent Organisation and head of the European Patent Office.^[14]

Signage at the Munich office of the European Patent Office, in its three official languages, German, English and French.

The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German. However, other languages than these three are not all considered on the same footing. Non-admissible languages, such as Japanese or Chinese, should be distinguished from the "admissible non-EPO languages", such as Spanish, Italian, Dutch and any language that is at least an official language in one Contracting State. European patent applications can be validly filed by some applicants in an admissible non-EPO language provided that a translation is filed thereafter,^[15] while they cannot be validly filed in Chinese or Japanese whether a translation is filed thereafter or not.^{[obsolete fact]}

The European Patent Office includes the following departments, pursuant to Art. 15 EPC: a Receiving Section, responsible for the examination on filing and the examination as to formal requirements of European patent applications, Examining Divisions, responsible for prior art searches and the examination of European patent applications, Opposition Divisions, responsible for the examination of oppositions against any European patent, a Legal Division, Boards of Appeal, responsible for the examination of appeals, and an Enlarged Board of Appeal (see also: Appeal procedure before the European Patent Office). In practice, the above departments of European Patent Office are organized into five "Directorates-General" (DG), each being directed by a Vice-President: DG 1 Operations, DG 2 Operational Support, DG 3 Appeals, DG 4 Administration, and DG 5 Legal/International Affairs.

EPO The Hague branch

The European Patent Office does not include any court which can take decisions on infringement matter. National jurisdictions are competent for infringement matter regarding European patents.

The European Patent Office acts as a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examining Authority in the international procedure according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The Patent Cooperation Treaty provides an international procedure for dealing with patent applications, called international applications, during the first 30 months after their first filing in any country. The European Patent Office does not grant international patents - which do not exist. After 30 months an international application must be converted into national or regional patent applications, and then are subject to national/regional grant procedures.

The EPO cooperates with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) pursuant to trilateral agreements.

The Administrative Council is made up of members of the contracting states and is responsible for overseeing the work of the European Patent Office,^[4] ratifying the budget and approving the actions of the President of the Office.^[3] The Council also amends the Rules of the EPC and some particular provisions of the Articles of the European Patent Convention.^[8]

The current chairman is Roland Grossenbacher (Swiss).^[16]

There are, as of December 2007, 32 Contracting States to the EPC, also called member states of the European Patent Organisation:^[17] Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (see European Patent Convention article for the dates of entry in force in each country).

Norway and Croatia will become Contracting State on January 1, 2008.^{[18] [19]} The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has been invited to accede to the EPC.^[17]

In addition there are five "extension states" which are not Contracting States to the EPC but have instead signed extension agreements under which the protection conferred by European patent applications and patents is extended to the relevant country.^[20] These are Albania, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[17] Slovenia, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia were all extension states prior to joining the EPC.

A total of 208500 European patent applications were filed in 2006, compared to 197400 in 2005 (an increase of 5.6 %). Of the total, 48.5 % came from the contracting states, 25.7 % from the USA, 16.4 % from Japan and 9.4 % from other countries. The top three filers with the EPO in 2006 were Philips (4425 applications), Samsung (2355) and Siemens (2319).

The average time from filing to grant was 44.3 months, down from 45.3 months in 2005. In 2006, 56 % of the concluded procedures led to the grant of a patent. In 2006, the EPO granted nearly 63000 patents, compared to 53256 in 2005 (+17.9 %). Since its foundation, it has granted 823500 European patents, equivalent to 6.9 million national patents. ^[21]

• esp@cenet
• Eurasian Patent Organization
• European Patent Office Reports (EPOR), a publication
• International Patent Institute (IIB), established in 1947 and integrated into the European Patent Organisation on its creation
• Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), dealing with trademarks and industrial designs for the European Union
• Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO)
• Trilateral Offices

See also "European Patent Organisation" box below.

• European Patent Office web site
• Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPO or "European Patent Institute (epi)"
• Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO)