The European Patent Office An introduction to the EPO and the European patent system

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The European Patent OfficeAn introduction to the
EPO and the European patent system
Adapted and presented by Branka Lakic, patent
examiner Email blakic_at_epo.org
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Contents

• Patents
• About us
• What we do
• Quality
• Facts and figures

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What is a patent?

• A patent is a legal title granting its holder the
  right to prevent third parties from commercially
  using an invention without authorisation.
• In return for this protection, the holder has to
  disclose the invention to the public.
• Protection is granted
• for a limited period, generally 20 years
• for a specific geographic area

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What is patentable?

• To be patentable, an invention must
• have a technical character (e.g. comprise a
  product, process or apparatus)
• be new
• involve an inventive step
• be industrially applicable
• Some innovations are not patentable under the
  EPC
• for example, mathematical methods or formulae,
  computer programs and business methods are as
  such not regarded as inventions
• new plant or animal varieties and inventions
  whose commercial exploitation would be contrary
  to "ordre public" or morality (e.g. the cloning
  of human life) are examples of inventions
  excluded from patentability

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The benefits of patents

• For inventors, patents can
• help safeguard financial returns from the
  commercial exploitation of the invention
• give holders time to recoup their development
  costs
• encourage further investment in RD

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Contents

• Patents
• About us
• What we do
• Quality
• Facts and figures

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The European Patent Convention

• The European Patent Convention (EPC)
• provides the legal framework for the granting of
  European patents via a centralised procedure
• establishes the European Patent Organisation
• 1973 Diplomatic Conference in Munich ?
  signature of the EPC by 16 countries
• 1977 Entry into force of the EPC in 7 countries
  - marked as follows

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Structure of the European Patent Organisation
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35 member states

• Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus
  Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland
  France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland
  Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein
  Lithuania Luxembourg Former Yugoslav
  Republic of Macedonia Malta Monaco
  Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal
  Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
  Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom

European patent applications and patents can also
be extended at the applicant's request to the
following states Albania Bosnia-Herzegovina
Serbia Status January 2009
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Autonomy

• Not an EU institution
• Self-financing, i.e. revenuefrom fees covers
  operatingand capital expenditure

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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
Around 60 are patent examiners
Status December 2008
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Staff from 32 different countries
Status December 2008
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Contents

• Patents
• About us
• What we do
• Quality
• Facts and figures

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Our role in the European patent system

• We provide patent protection in up to 38 European
  countries based on a single application in one
  of the three official languages (German, English,
  French)
• European patent applications can be filed
• direct with the EPO
• via the national patent offices of the
  contracting states
• based on an international (PCT) application
• We are also responsible for
• limitation and revocation proceedings by
  patentees
• opposition proceedings by third parties
• appeal proceedings before the Boards of Appeal

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Our role in the international (PCT) system

• We process international patent applications
• we act as a receiving office for international
  applications (PCT)
• we carry out international search and preliminary
  examination procedures

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Other services

• Free online services
• filing
• fee payment
• file inspection
• tracking of legal status of applications
• Free patent information services
• online access to all European patent documents
  (updated weekly)
• simple online searches in our database of over 60
  million patent applications
• helpdesk staffed by experts on the Japanese,
  Chinese and Korean patent systems
• http//ep.espacenet.com http//hr.espacenet.com
• Training
• conferences
• workshops and seminars
• e-learning

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Overview of European patent grant procedure (I)
Validation in designated states
Refusal or withdrawal of application
European patent application
Applicant
Filing and formalities examination
Grant of European patent
Substantive examination
Search and search report together with
preliminary opinion on patentability
EPO
Publication of application and search
report Online access to application file and
legal status information Observations by third
parties possible
Publication of patent specification
Public domain
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Overview of European patent grant procedure (II)
Refusal of application
Applicant
Substantive examination
Grant of European patent
EPO
Opposition by third parties possible
Public domain
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Content of a patent application

• Request for the grant of a European patent
• Description of the invention
• Claims
• Drawings
• Abstract.

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Search report

• Listing of the state of the art documents along
  with publication data (applicant, publication
  date)
• A letter code (X, Y, A) identifying relation to
  the application
• An indication of the most relevant parts of
  documents

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How much a European patent costs

• Fees for
• filing,
• search,
• designation of states,
• claims (if more than fifteen),
• examination,
• grant and
• printing
• Average EUR 4 920 (or EUR 4 840 if the
  application was filed online) to take a patent
  application with seven or more designated states
  through to the grant stage.
• Translation and maintenance fees

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Contents

• Patents
• About us
• What we do
• Quality
• Facts and figures

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Highly skilled examiners

• Top-level engineers and scientists
• high degree of technical expertise
• knowledge of the EPO's three official languages
• Training during first two years
• extensive legal and procedural training
• individual coaching by experienced examiners

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Contents

• Patents
• About us
• What we do
• Quality
• Facts and figures

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Comprehensive search documentation

• World's largest collection of patent and
  non-patent literature documents, containing more
  than 400 million records in over 100 databases
  and updated daily
• Online access to more than 6 000 journals via
  the EPO Virtual Library
• New tools and services such as machine
  translation to extend the range of easily
  accessible information
• Ongoing efforts to improve the scope and quality
  of our documentation

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Rigorous controls and commitment to improvement

• Up-to-date guidelines and instructions for
  examiners
• Spot-checks on search reports and patent quality
• Internal quality audits

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Applications filed
Direct European filings
Euro-PCT applications entering the regional
phase
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European patents granted
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Applications by residence of applicant (2008)
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Technical fields with the most filings (2008)
Number of applications
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High-growth technical fields (at least 500
applications filed in 2008)
1 074
522
655
532
737
2 365
735
502
2 109
539
Number of applications in 2008
growth in number of applications 2008 vs. 2007
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Leading applicants and patentees in 2008
Applications
Granted European patents
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Oppositions in 2008

• Oppositions were filed against 5 of granted
  European patents.
• Over one third of all opposed patents were
  revoked.

Opposition rejected
Patent revoked
28.6
39.8
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Oppositions
31.6
Granted patents
Patent maintained in amended form
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Need more information?

• www.epo.org
• info_at_epo.org
• Tel. [phone] - 4636