The European Patent Organisation (EPO or EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, which is the main organ of the organisation) is an international organisation set up by the European Patent Convention.

The European Patent Organisation has the task of granting European patents. Despite what the name suggests, these are not European Community patents or even Europe-wide patents. The European Patent Convention, according to which the European Patent Organisation was established, provides a single patent grant procedure, but not yet a single patent on the point of view of enforcement. After grant, the European patent becomes equivalent to a number ("bundle") of national patents.

The European Patent Organisation is not legally bound to the European Union.

Contents

1 History 2 Seat 3 Organs 3.1 European Patent Office 3.1.1 Presidency 3.1.2 Languages 3.1.3 Departments 3.1.4 The European Patent Office and the Patent Cooperation Treaty 3.2 Administrative Council 4 Member states and extension states 5 See also 6 External links

History

See European Patent Convention for a history of the European Patent Organisation.

Seat

The European Patent Organisation has its seat at Munich, Germany.

Organs

The European Patent Organisation has two organs: the European Patent Office, which can be viewed as its executive body, and the Administrative Council, which can be considered as its legislative body to a limited extent, the actual legislative body for important matters being the Contracting States.

European Patent Office

The European Patent Office (EPO or EPOff in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Organisation) can be viewed as the executive body of the European Patent Organisation.

The EPOff headquarters are located at Munich, Germany, with a branch in Rijswijk (suburb of The Hague, Netherlands) and sub-offices in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria.

Presidency

The European Patent Office is directed by a president. Here is the list of former, current and future presidents of the European Patent Office:

• Johannes Bob van Benthem (... - ...), Dutch
• Paul Brändli (... - December 31, 1995), Swiss
• Ingo Kober (January 1, 1996 - June 30, 2004), German
• Alain Pompidou (July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2007), French
• Alison Brimelow (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2010), British

Languages

The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German.

Departments

The EPOff includes a Receiving Section, responsible for the examination on filing and the examination as to formal requirements of European patent applications, search Divisions, responsible for drawing up European search reports, Examining Divisions, responsible for 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.

The EPOff 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 and the Patent Cooperation Treaty

The European Patent Office acts mainly as a receiving Office, an International Searching Authority, an International Preliminary Examining Authority and an elected Office in the international procedure according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The Patent Cooperation Treaty provides an international procedure for dealing with patent applications (but does not grant international patents - which do not exist).

Administrative Council

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation constitutes its legislative body. It adopts the budget, approves the President's actions and amends the Rules and some particular provisions of the Articles of the European Patent Convention. Its current chairman is Roland Grossenbacher.

Member states and extension states

There are (as of 1 December 2004) 30 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, 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).

In addition there are six so-called "extension states" which recognise European patents but are not member of the EPO. These are Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Further countries are expected to join the EPO in due course (probably Latvia, Malta and Norway soon).

See also

• European Patent Convention
• International Patent Institute (IIB), established in 1947 and integrated into the European Patent Organisation on its creation
• Espacenet
• Eurasian Patent Organisation
• Trilateral Offices
• European Patent Office Reports (EPOR), a publication

External links

• Official European Patent Office homepage (http://www.epo.org)
• Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPOff (http://www.patentepi.com/) or "European Patent Institute (epi)"
• Circumstances of work at the EPO (http://swpat.ffii.org/players/epo/index.en.html) (by FFII)
• June 2003: EPO opened a office in Brussels/Belgium (http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/EpoOfficeInBrussels) (Lobbying)