e-learning centre of the European Patent Academy

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 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.

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.

This course is a pre-requisite for universities participating in tutored online sessions on patent documentation organised by the European Patent Academy. For further information, please contact academy@epo.org.

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.