This course comprises 35 recorded lectures in which expert examiners present their CPC technical fields.

The lectures are based on the presentations delivered during the CPC field-specific trainings that took place in 2018 in The Hague and in 2019 in Munich. The events were aimed at staff who use the CPC in classification at national offices in both member states and non-member states.

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.

Please see the complete training programme.

This online course is offered to patent examiners at national IP offices of EPO member states to train them in the use of the CPVO database introduced to the EPOQUE Net tool. 

Course for internal staff only.

"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.

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.

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.