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.

The conference Examination Matters has become the meeting place for patent attorneys dealing with the EPO in the patent granting procedure. This course room offers access to the recordings of three public webinars covering some of the most popular topics of the event.

This self-paced course provides candidates with help and guidance on how to tackle EQE papers A, B, C and D. 

This series of three one-hour virtual classrooms will introduce the main concepts of the substantive law specifically applicable in the field of healthcare. We will also be looking at the approach adopted by EPO examiners in dealing with patent applications in this area. The focus will be on showing practical example, so that you can optimise patent prosecution before the EPO.
The fee of EUR 80 covers all three one-hour virtual classroom sessions. 

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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).

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).

This self-paced course explains the role of the EPO as appointed international searching authority and international preliminary examining authority in the process of search and examination of patent applications.

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

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).