The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council.[1] The EPO acts as executive body for the Organisation[2][3] while the Administrative Council acts as its supervisory body[2] as well as, to a limited extent, its legislative body.[4][3] The actual legislative power to revise the European Patent Convention lies with the Contracting States themselves when meeting at a Conference of the Contracting States.[5]
Contents |
Function, status and location
The European Patent Office ("EPO" or, sometimes, "EPOff"[6] in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Organisation) grants European patents for the Contracting States to 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,[7] but an organ of the European Patent Organisation,[8] which has a legal personality.[9]
The EPO 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 2007, the European Patent Office had a staff of 6499 (with 3514 based in Munich, 2579 in Rijswijk, 283 in Berlin, 119 in Vienna and 4 in Brussels).[10] The predecessor of the European Patent Office was the Institut International des Brevets or IIB.
| Presidents of the European Patent Office |
| 1. Johannes Bob van Benthem (1 November 1977 - 30 April 1985), Dutch. |
| 2. Paul Brändli (1 May 1985 - 31 December 1995), Swiss. |
| 3. Ingo Kober (1 January 1996 - 30 June 2004), German. |
| 4. Alain Pompidou (1 July 2004 - 30 June 2007), French. |
| 5. Alison Brimelow (1 July 2007 - 30 June 2010), British. |
President
The European Patent Office is directed by a president, who is responsible for its activities to the Administrative Council.[11] The president also represents the European Patent Organisation.[12] The president has therefore a dual role: representative of the European Patent Organisation and head of the European Patent Office.[13] The President of the European Patent Office is appointed by the Administrative Council.[14] A majority of three-quarters of the votes of the Contracting States represented and voting in the Administrative Council is required for the appointment of the President.[15][16]
Languages
The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German[17] and publications including the European Patent Bulletin and Official Journal of the European Patent Office are published in all three of those languages.[18]
Patent applications may be filed in any language[19] provided that a translation into one of the official languages is submitted within two months.[20] The official language that the application is filed in or translated into is taken to be the language of the proceedings[21] and the application is published in that language.[22] Documentary evidence may also be submitted in any language, although the EPO may require a translation.[23]
Several Contracting States to the European Patent Convention have an official language which is not an official language of the EPO, such as Dutch, Italian or Spanish and these languages are referred to as "admissible non-EPO languages".[24] Residents or nationals of such States may submit any documents subject to a time limit in an official language of that State[25] and there is a shorter period of one month for filing a translation into an official language[26] or the document is deemed not to have been filed.[27] Many EPO fees are reduced by 20% for people who file patent application or other documents in an admissible non-EPO language and subsequently file the necessary translation.[28]
Departments and Directorates-General
The European Patent Office includes the following departments[29]:
- 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,
- An Enlarged Board of Appeal.
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.
The European Patent Office does not make decisions on infringement matters. National courts have jurisdiction over infringement matters regarding European patents. Regarding the validity of European patents however, both the European Patent Office during opposition proceedings (Article 99 EPC) and national courts during nullity proceedings (Article 138 EPC) may decide to revoke a European patent. According to Sir Robin Jacob, the members of the EPO Boards of Appeal are "judges in all but name". [31]
Activities under the Patent Cooperation Treaty
The European Patent Office acts as a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority (ISA) and an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) 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 (or, for a few countries, after 20 months[32]) an international application must be converted into national or regional patent applications, and then are subject to national/regional grant procedures.
Cooperations
The EPO cooperates with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices.
Staff unions
Staff unions active within the EPO include the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) and the Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne - European Patent Office (FFPE-EPO).
SUEPO [33] was born in 1979 out of the Syndicat du Personnel de l'Institut International des Brevets (SP-IIB) which was founded in 1969. SUEPO is made up of four local sections in Berlin, Munich, The Hague and Vienna and claims to have consistently about 50% of the staff of the respective sites as member.[34]
FFPE-EPO [35] is a staff union at the EPO, The Hague section. It was registered under Dutch law [36] on March 7, 2008, and is affiliated with the European Civil Service Federation (French: Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne or FFPE), founded in 1962. [37] The FFPE-EPO was set up in spite of the fact that there already was a staff union in place in EPO, The Hague, the SUEPO, because -in the words of FFPE-EPO- a need was felt for new representation with new visions, developing new ways of representing everyone's interests, including that of the EPO. An unofficial English translation of the statutes can be found on-line. [38]
References
- ^ Article 4(2) EPC
- ^ a b Article 4(3) EPC
- ^ a b c Gower's Report on Intellectual Property, para 1.34
- ^ Article 33 EPC
- ^ Article 172 EPC
- ^ European Patent Office web site, European Patent Convention (EPC), Alphabetical keyword index. Consulted on November 17, 2007.
- ^ Decision T 1012/03 of December 1, 2006, Reasons 29.
- ^ Article 4(2)(a) EPC
- ^ Article 5(1) EPC
- ^ European Patent Office, Annual Report 2007. Staff and resources, Fig. 2 Analysis of staff in post on 31 December 2007 by place of employment & grade. Consulted on July 8, 2008.
- ^ Article 10(1) EPC
- ^ Article 5(3) EPC
- ^ Decision T 1012/03 of December 1, 2006, Reasons 35.
- ^ Article 11(1) EPC
- ^ Article 35(2) EPC, which refers to "Article 11, paragraph 1".
- ^ See for instance: EPO web site, Decision on next EPO President deferred, News, 30 October 2009. Consulted on 31 October 2009.
- ^ Article 14(1) EPC
- ^ Article 14(7) EPC
- ^ Article 14(2) EPC
- ^ Rule 6(1) EPC
- ^ Article 14(3) EPC
- ^ Article 14(5) EPC
- ^ Rule 3(3) EPC
- ^ Guidelines for Examination in the EPO a.xi.9.2.1
- ^ Article 14(4) EPC
- ^ Rule 6(2) EPC
- ^ Article 14(4) EPC
- ^ Rule 6(2) EPC and RFees 14(1)
- ^ Article 15 EPC
- ^ Under Article 6(2) EPC.
- ^ Sir Robin Jacob, National Courts and the EPO Litigation System, GRUR Int. 2008, Vol. 8-9, pages 658-662, referring to what he said in Lenzing's Appn. [1997] RPC 245 at p. 277 and repeated in Unilin v. Berry [2007] EWCA Civ. 364.
- ^ As of October 2009, three countries: Luxembourg, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, see PCT Reservations, Declarations, Notifications and Incompatibilities (status on 29 September 2009) (PCT Articles, 22(1)) and Article 22(1) PCT (See "Editor's Note").
- ^ SUEPO web site
- ^ SUEPO web site, About us. Consulted on March 14, 2009.
- ^ FFPE-EPO web site
- ^ (Dutch) Entry for "Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européene (sic) - European Patent Office" (KvK-nummer: 27315188) in the trade register maintained by the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel or KvK).
- ^ FFPE web site, Presentation of the FFPE, Welcome. Consulted on March 14, 2009.
- ^ Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne, European Patent Office, The Hague, Non-official translation of the statutes, 27.03.2008. Consulted on March 14, 2009.
External links
- 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)
- FFPE-EPO another staff union of the European Patent Office
|
||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
