This distance learning course is offered to patent examiners at national IP offices. Participants will learn to apply the criteria for clarity as well as the methodology for determining the unity of invention in line with the EPO practice (Guidelines and Case Law). Virtual classroom sessions allow for direct interaction with EPO expert tutors.

This distance learning course is offered to patent examiners at national IP offices. Participants will learn to assess novelty and inventive step in line with the EPO practice (Guidelines and Case Law). Virtual classroom sessions allow for direct interaction with expert tutors from the European Patent Office.

Level of expertise: Intermediate level

Please see the complete training programme.

In this course you find recordings of two webinars on (1) the business use of patent information and (2) PATSTAT online.

The publication of information related to patent applications and granted patents is anchored in the EPC under Chapter II of Part VII.

The EPO maintains a variety of tools for searching and analysing this information and regularly conducts public webinars. 

This distance learning course is offered to patent examiners at national IP offices and comprises a series of ten live virtual classroom (VC) sessions on the use of EPOQUE Net. They will help to broaden skills of EPOQUE Net users at national offices. Practical cases will be provided as short assignments prior to each VC. Solution(s) proposed by participants and the tutor(s) will be therein discussed. Tips and tricks on efficient use of the EPO's professional patent search tool will be brought to participants. Features of possible new roll-outs will also be included in the course.

During the VC sessions, participants have the possibility to communicate live with the experts and ask questions.

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Since 2017, papers A and B are the same for all candidates, i.e. they are no longer offered in the technical fields chemistry and electricity/mechanics. This course explains what EQE candidates can expect from this new format.

Practice is the key to your preparations for Paper D of the EQE, so the Academy is offering you the chance to hone your legal skills by tackling a daily question on the paper. The questions, formerly provided by DeltaPatents, will be posted weekly, for a 12-week period running from October to December. There will be a dedicated entry for each question where you can post your answer. An experienced EQE tutor comments on the questions (and your answers) every Friday.

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"Boards of Appeal and key decisions" is an annual conference where experienced patent practitioners, judges and staff from national patent offices meet to discuss the most recent key decisions and developments in the EPO's boards of appeal case law.

"Search Matters" is an annual event that showcases the EPO's patent search strategies and techniques, focusing on efficient search strategies, search practice in specific technical fields, as well as recent developments.

This course has been specifically designed for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows. It looks at the importance of patents as a source of information for research and new projects and as a means of protecting inventions, featuring examples and real cases.

Live webinars with experts from the European Patent Office take place on 6, 13 and 20 March 2018 at 15.00 h CET (GMT +01:00).

Applying for a patent can be a complex undertaking, with many different aspects to consider. The two modules that take you through the Guide for Applicants give an insight into the procedure to be followed when examining European applications and patents in accordance with the European Patent Convention. The module on oral proceedings also shows you what happens in such proceedings relating to the examination procedure before the EPO.

This series of five one-hour virtual classroom sessions will introduce the main concepts of IP evaluation and protection. Innovation is the commercialisation of an invention. Decisions on which technologies should be developed and which IP assets created must be carefully evaluated. IP needs to be protected, but protection costs money, so it must be assessed within the overall context of innovation potential and enforceability. In a global market, the life-cycle management of patents on a worldwide basis is key to making best use of the patent system to gain and maintain competitive advantage.

The fee of EUR 100 covers all five one-hour virtual classroom sessions.

This series of four one-hour virtual classroom sessions will introduce the main concepts of IP value extraction and commercialisation. The sessions explore ways in which value can be extracted from IP via different models, ranging through securing markets to actively harvesting royalties. It covers the basic IP value-extraction mechanisms and how they can be implemented through licensing and enforcement.

The fee of EUR 100 covers all four one-hour virtual classroom sessions.

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In diesem Kurs finden Sie die Videos einer Vortragsreihe für Formalsachbearbeiter, welche im Februar und März 2017 stattfand. Juristen und erfahrene Formalsachbearbeiter des EPA behandelten Verfahrensfragen, Beispiele und aktuelle Entwicklungen aus speziellen Bereichen der Formalsachbearbeitung.

Every patent application is assigned a category in one of the major patent classification schemes to ensure it can be found in subsequent searches by patent offices and other interested parties. Learn more about how this is done.

This course gives an insight into the specific patentability requirements and legal basis for particular topics such as biotechnology, computer-implemented inventions or patents based on traditional medicinal knowledge.

This second course of the CPC series gives you a short overview of the CPC and how it differs from the IPC. It also looks at some practical aspects and useful strategies. 

This course provides you with an overview and practical exercises about the problem-solution approach, which was developed to assess the inventiveness requirement of a European patent application.

This self-paced training course is all about understanding and interpreting the information contained in search reports and written opinions. The emphasis is on practical examples and exercises.

Pan-European Seal: this on-line course is mandatory for candidates in science and technology fields (DG1) and in international & legal affairs (DG5).

In this course, you will discover how to devise an effective search strategy, how to evaluate the prior art you find and how to know when to stop searching.find out about the role and importance of strategies in the search process.

This distance learning course comprises a series of five one-hour virtual classroom lessons which introduce topics from ip4inno training modules. These modules have been specifically designed to equip companies, business advisors, TTOs and others with an understanding of intellectual property issues as they impact SMEs and new businesses.

Target group: Pan-European Seal interns at the EPO

Use this on-line tool to learn how to use the IP Teaching Kit when preparing a lecture on IP.

This self-paced training course deals with the role of patents in innovation and research, the conditions an invention has to meet in order to become a patent and how to use patent documentation for a particular research project.

This course presents tools and databases available at the EPO that help you to prepare and file your patent application.

This self-paced course offers an overview of the CPC classification system, from the basics to the CPC definition documents.

Pan-European Seal: this on-line course is mandatory for candidates in science and technology fields (DG1).

This course comprises the lectures given at a workshop designed for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows (MSCA). It focused on topics such as the European patent system, developing IP strategies, patent search and research success stories.