e-learning centre of the European Patent Academy

Patents play an important role in the food technology. This advanced lecture series provides participants with insights into the innovations shaping the food industry of the future, and reveal how IP strategy can lead to success.

Medtech refers to the innovative field results from the application of technology to the medical industry and has contributed to the development of products, services and solutions that can save and improve people's lives. In this advanced lecture series a wide range of IP professionals, from inventors and IP specialists to examiners, explain how patents can be used to protect medtech inventions.

Registration

Do you want to learn how to apply the criteria for clarity as well as the methodology for determining unity of invention in line with EPO practice (Guidelines and case law)?

This course provides you with the information you need on these topics, while giving examples of relevant Boards of Appeal decisions related to clarity and unity of invention.

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.

This self-paced course will give you an overview of how patentability requirements are assessed at the EPO and what objections might be raised during the process. It includes a number of examples of different situations.

This tutored e-learning course is intended for examiners of national industrial property offices participating in the pilot for the Common Search Tool.

Registration

This course offers CPC field-specific training for examiners in these technical fields:  

A61K33, B25B, C01G, C08F14, F28, G01P, H01P, G01C

This course offers CPC field-specific training for examiners for in these technical fields:  

B64G, B65G, A61B5, A24F, H02K, H01L33.

In this course, you will gain an understanding of the main categories of intellectual property (IP) rights, their primary features and how to apply these rights. The emphasis is on patents and on the “what”, “when” and “how” of protecting inventions. Further topics include how to search for patents and how to develop an IP strategy.

Watch this video to find out more about this course:

This high-impact tutored programme comprises three modules on search that build on each other to take participants from entry to intermediate level. At the end of the programme, participants should be able to process files autonomously under the supervision of an experienced colleague.

The EPO has designed the European patent administration certification (EPAC) targeting paralegals, patent administrators and formalities officers. Enrolment for the EPAC will run in September.

In this course, potential candidates find informative material to help them prepare for the first edition of the EPAC.

This course includes presentations by EPO lawyers and examiners on recent changes in EPO substantive and procedural matters. Topics addressed are: assessing evidence and plausibility in sufficiency; essential features and their impact on compliance with EPC requirements; latest developments in the Guidelines referred to computer implemented inventions (CII); and procedural aspects at the final stages of the grant procedure towards the best possible protection.

"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.

On 4 December 2018 the EPO hosted as the first major patent office a conference entitled “Patenting Blockchain”, an event designed to open a discussion around the impact of Blockchain on the patent system. This course room offers access to the recordings of the lectures and panel discussions.

Examination Matters has become the go-to event for patent attorneys interested in finding out more about the patent granting procedure at the EPO. This year's event focused on procedural and substantive aspects of the examination procedure, including: auxiliary requests from the division's perspective, communicating successfully with the examining division, overcoming clarity issues efficiently, double patenting, late filings, efficient application drafting in the light of Rule 42(1)(c) EPC, correction of errors, hindsight when assessing inventive step, preparation of Rule 71(3) communications.

There was also a panel discussion on harmonising practices in applications relating to computer-implemented inventions.

This year’s event was once again organised in close co-operation with the epi.

This course offers CPC field-specific training for CNIPA examiners for selected sub-class:

• B25G and H

This self-paced course provides an overview of the benefits of the intellectual property system, and of patents in particular. You will discover the importance of patents from two perspectives: as a valuable source of information when it comes to researching whether an idea or a product has already been patented, and as a means of protecting inventions.

This course room offers access to videos giving an overview of the new Guidelines (in force as of March 2023) and the updates relevant for examiner procedures.

To get an overview of the new Guidelines for Examination in force as of March 2023 you can register here

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 self-paced course offers a basic introduction to the most important legal and procedural aspects of patents and the European patent system.

Pan-European Seal: this on-line course is mandatory for all candidates.

This course on IP management explores ways in which value can be extracted from IP via different models, ranging from securing markets to actively harvesting royalties. It covers the basic IP value-extraction mechanisms and how they can be implemented through licensing and enforcement.

This series of six virtual classroom sessions (VCs) is designed for business advisors, technology transfer professionals and anyone else interested in understanding how IP issues impact SMEs and new businesses.

These lectures are an opportunity to find out more about the services provided by the EPO, the latest developments in the PCT system and many practical aspects of the PCT procedure. The speakers are experienced PCT lawyers from the directorate in charge of European and international legal affairs.

The rise of innovative solutions in cinema, video games, human-machine interfaces and the food industry has made it all the more important to protect these fields through IP rights.

Watch the recordings of public lectures organised by the EPO and the EUIPO to find out how IP rights can be integrated and combined to support and protect innovation in these rapidly evolving industries.

This self-paced training course gives an in-depth overview on the opposition procedure at the EPO.

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

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 provides easy access to the main concepts involved as well as to items of specific interest in patent litigation.

This course room offers access to material covering topics related to the substantive European patent law applicable specifically to healthcare and EPO's approach to examining patent applications in this field.

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 seminar series focuses on clarity and sufficiency of disclosure in specific fields across three seminars, each of which comprises two online sessions: theoretical session (also open to patent attorneys) and practical session for examiners only. Fields covered are pharmacy, biotechnology and CII. Participants may register for the complete series or for individual seminars within the series.

This online course has been designed for staff of Patlib centres. Here they can expand their knowledge on the European patent system, patent information and IP rights with the help of self-paced courses and interactive VCs organised on these topics.

This online course has been designed for staff of Patlib centres. Here they can expand their knowledge on the European patent system, patent information and IP rights with the help of self-paced courses and interactive VCs organized on these topics.

This online course has been designed for staff of Patlib centres. Here they can expand their knowledge on the European patent system, patent information and IP rights with the help of self-paced courses and interactive VCs organized on these topics.

PCT Updates is an online seminar delivered in the three official languages of the EPO, about the latest developments on the PCT procedure at the EPO as receiving Office, International Searching Authority, International Preliminary Examination Authority and designated Office.

An EPO team of PCT experts, a WIPO expert and European patent attorneys provide information relevant for PCT users including the report on the 2021 PCT Working Group meeting, representation at the EPO in the international phase, obvious mistakes (R. 91 PCT) and the early entry into the European phase – request for early processing (Art. 23(2) / 40(2) PCT) as well as the processing of sequence listings, priority rights and online services and training.

This self-paced course room gives candidates access to the actual pre-examination papers from 2016 to 2021.

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).

This tutored e-learning course is intended for examiners of national industrial property offices participating in the pilot for the Search Tool.

This course is intended for those interested in judicial matters, such as the concept of "prior user", the principle applied to interpreting the scope of patent claims in an invention and the enforcement directive.

Participants are invited to register with an online course room that gives access to self-learning resources on computer-implemented inventions and business methods. Approximately one month after the course room opens, an online day is made available, comprising two two-hour sessions, for answering questions from participants and illustrating the main concepts with examples. The course is concluded with an online test. 

In order to understand, locate and evaluate patent information you need to know something about patent documents. In this self-paced online course you will learn about patents and patent documentation.

When having to decide if to grant a patent or refuse an application, the EPO examines whether an application meets the requirements of the European Patent Convention (EPC).

What exactly does this involve? And which are the steps of the procedure?

This course will give you an overview of the grant procedure at the EPO with insights into related formalities, structure and role of the Boards of Appeal and options to accelerate the procedure.

The workshop addresses patenting issues related to evolutions currently observed in the field of batteries. After a general introduction on the spectrum covered by these technologies, the workshop focuses on two specific aspects thereof:

– Cooling means
– Power management

The objective of the workshop is an exchange of practices between the participants. Participants are senior patent examiners working in the fields under discussion.

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 online course will enable trainers at PATLIB centres to plan and implement courses on Espacenet and other EPO search tools quickly and in a resource-efficient way.

This high-impact tutored programme comprises three modules on search that build on each other to take participants from entry to intermediate level. At the end of the programme, participants should be able to process files autonomously under the supervision of an experienced colleague.

This itinerary is the third part of the 'IP and research' series and features a number of case studies, which illustrate the strategical and practical relevance of patents and IP for research-driven businesses.

Our professional world has shifted rapidly to digital environments. This is why the academies of the EPO and EUIPO have jointly organised a training on how to conduct online discussions effectively. This course offers access to the recordings of the online training.