The course is about providing complimentary information and experience for participants with regards to EPO Case Law related to the specific topics.

Please see the complete training programme.

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.

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

In some cases, national authorities may license companies or individuals other than the patent owner to use the rights of the patent without the consent of the patent owner. “Compulsory licensing in Europe” provides a country-by-country overview of compulsory licensing regimes across the 38 EPC contracting states including possible grounds for grant, procedural framework and jurisprudence.

This advanced-level seminar is an exchange meeting between experienced examiners from NPOs of the member states and from the EPO, focused this year on disclosure and implicit features. The goal is to establish a review of the practices and to point out common elements and differences.

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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. 

Find out more about this conference, where European and international user organisations, universities were discussing key substantive patent law harmonisation issues.

This distance learning course is offered to patent examiners at national IP offices who have started to use the EPOQUE Net tool. The course comprises on-line material, such as e-learning modules and will be articulated around a series of 6 virtual classroom (VC) sessions. The course has a focus on the hands-on experience, translated in the form of assignments, exercises and examples. The material will help EPOQUE Net users at national offices to efficiently perform searches using EPOQUE Net. The tutors are experienced EPO examiners. 

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

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. The training takes place in a virtual classroom (VC) session during which participants have the possibility to communicate live with the trainers and ask questions.

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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 will be posted weekly, for a 12-week period running from 28 September to 18 December. There will be a dedicated entry for each question where you can post your answer. Two European Patent Attorneys comment on the questions (and your answers) every Friday.

"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 meeting place for patent attorneys dealing with the EPO in the patent granting procedure. This year's event focused on a single broad thematic area, chemistry, and included four specialised, advanced-level workshops given by senior examiners. In addition, there were a roundtable on how the procedural, legal and administrative changes introduced under SP2023 will impact the work of patent attorneys and a lecture on substantive law.

This high-level event was once again organised in close co-operation with the epi.

This event aims at fostering exchange between experts from National Patent Offices in specific technical fields. Through this exchange, they will further their own knowledge as well as gaining insight into common  issues and differences of practice. A brochure summarising the findings of the exchange is subsequently made available to National Patent Offices. 

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This event aims at fostering exchange between experts from National Patent Offices in specific technical fields. Through this exchange, they will further their own knowledge as well as gaining insight into common  issues and differences of practice. A brochure summarising the findings of the exchange is subsequently made available to National Patent Offices. 

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This course looks at the importance of patents as a source of information for research and new projects and as a means of protecting inventions with a particular view on graphene technologies.

The focus is set on how to best protect and exploit the research results by raising awareness on Intellectual Property (IP) and what the benefits are to know more about IP. The course includes reading material, recorded videos, examples as well as successful IP case studies on how university inventions turned into business. After completion of a quiz, participants will receive a certificate by the EPO.

Participants will have the possibility to interact with EPO and Graphene Flagship experts during live virtual classroom sessions and in an online forum.

This course has been specifically designed for researchers and innovators in new technologies.

This course room offers access to two videos giving an overview of the main changes to the Guidelines and their impact on formalities and examiner procedures.

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 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 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.

This course keeps you up to date with some of the most recent changes in patent law.

Opposition Matters follows in the footsteps of its sister events, Search Matters and Examination Matters, which over the years have become key events for patent searchers and attorneys alike. Have you ever wondered what the day-to-day work of an examiner in opposition involves? The Opposition Matters conference offered the opportunity to find out - direct from our examiners and with senior European patent attorneysco-presenting alongside EPO examiners.

This high-level event was once again organised in close co-operation with the epi.

Participants to the conference find here the recordings of the sessions.

The EPO has been conducting a pilot project since 4 May 2020 for oral proceedings by videoconference before opposition divisions.

Get a feel for this new way of conducting oral proceedings by watching a recording of mock proceedings featuring a real EPO opposition division and experienced European patent attorneys.

This course is restricted to the participants of the BIT Knowledge eXchange (BKX). For inquiries on access please contact Ms Rogier at BKX@epo.org

The European Patent Convention (EPC) sets out the legal framework for a single, harmonised patent granting procedure for the European patent, which exists in parallel with national patents subject to national prosecution procedures.

Post-grant litigation and enforcement procedures differ quite substantially across the EPC contracting states, as do the courts adjudicating on patent matters. This online course provides a country-by-country overview.

This course room offers access to material covering a range of topics related to computer-implemented inventions, from patentability requirements to new technologies and specific uses of CII in fields like biotech and healthcare.

This self-paced course explains the criteria for patentability, relating to both the invention and the patent application, according to the EPC.

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

PCT Updates is an online seminar where an EPO team of PCT experts discuss the latest developments regarding the PCT. To find out more about what’s new in the PCT procedures at the EPO, the amendments to the Regulations under the PCT,  the latest PCT developments on Covid-19 remedies and the entry into force of the new Rule 20.5bis, you can register for the webinar in English or German. You can also watch last year’s seminar with the information in French.

This self-paced course room gives candidates access to the actual pre-examination papers from 2015 to 2017.

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 self-paced course offers a practical guide towards systematic patent search, from the process of analysing the patent application to carrying out a sufficiently complete and efficient search and deciding when to stop the search.

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

European university students from all disciplines will get hands-on experience of the EPO and insight into the work of EPO experts from a variety of fields to get a deeper understanding of the European patent system.

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On completion of the seminar participants (NPO staff) will be able to: 

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).