What is the European Patent Office? European Patent Office Review

The European Patent Office is an intergovernmental organization formally established on October 7, 1977 in accordance with the European Patent Convention. It is responsible for examining and granting European patents that can be effective in 42 countries. It is headquartered in Munich, Germany, with branches in The Hague, the Netherlands, and offices in Berlin, Germany, Vienna, Austria, and Brussels, Belgium. The office is one of the largest public service organizations in Europe, with staff from 34 different nationalities (about 6,400 people).

language

There are three official languages: English, German and French, and publications including the European Patent Bulletin and the Official Journal of the European Patent Office are published in these three languages.

European patent applications are usually filed in the official languages ​​of English, French and German. Upon receiving the European Patent Office's notification of grant, only the claims need to be translated into the other two official languages ​​of the European patent. That is, the claims of the European patent will be announced in three languages: English, French and German.
If the language of the authorized patent is not an official language of a member state, the member state has the right to require the patent owner to submit a translation of the authorized patent document within three months from the date of the authorization announcement, and to pay the publication fee of all or part of the translation within a certain period of time.

history

On October 5, 1973, after more than 20 years of negotiations and debate, 16 countries signed the European Patent Convention. This multilateral treaty created the European Patent Organization and the European Patent Office (EPO) and provided for an autonomous legal system for examining and granting European patents. When the European Patent Convention came into force in 1977, applicants could file a single patent application with the Office, which, if granted, would apply to all member states of their choice. Member states retain the right to enforce and revoke individual patents.

In the same year, a temporary committee was set up to facilitate the implementation of the European Patent Convention. The committee was headed by Kurt Haertel, President of the German Patent Office, and was responsible for recruiting staff and organizing the infrastructure required to establish the European Patent Office.

On November 2, 1977, the European Patent Office first started working in its temporary headquarters in the Motorama building rented in Munich, Germany. In the more than three years after the signing of the European Patent Convention, the Provisional Committee carefully examined the actual situation of setting up an international patent office and staffing it. The office initially recruited 98 basic staff members.

In 1978, the International Patent Institute (IIB) in The Hague and its 714 employees merged with the EPO. The IIB was founded in 1947 to administer patent applications from Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and was later joined by five more countries: Turkey (1955), Monaco (1956), Switzerland (1960), the United Kingdom (1965) and Italy (1974). As part of the Institute, the IIB was responsible for the examination of applications, files and pre-art patent examinations. In the same year, the EPO Berlin Branch was established to handle patent searches.

In 1983, faced with a sharp increase in the number of patent applications in the early 1980s, the European Patent Office and the United States and Japan held their first trilateral meeting in Washington and agreed to promote the rapid exchange of patent data.

On January 1, 1991, the European Patent Office established an office in Vienna, Austria.

In 1993, the European Patent Office established an office in Brussels, Belgium.

In 1995, the European Patent Office launched its first website.

In 2000, the European Patent Office launched Internet services for online patent applications and document examinations.

In 2004, the European Patent Academy was established to educate and train a diverse audience, including patent professionals, judges, civil servants, business managers and academics who deal directly with intellectual property issues and the patent system.

In 2014, the European Patent Office and the China National Intellectual Property Administration jointly launched the "Global Dossier" system, which can display patent application information filed in China.

References

• 1. About the European Patent Office: EPO official website