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The European Patent Organisation (EPO or EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, which is the main organ of the organisation) is an international organisation set up by the European Patent Convention.
The European Patent Organisation has the task of granting European patents. Despite what the name suggests, these are not European Community patents or even Europe-wide patents. The European Patent Convention, according to which the European Patent Organisation was established, provides a single patent grant procedure, but not yet a single patent on the point of view of enforcement. After grant, the European patent becomes equivalent to a number ("bundle") of national patents.
The European Patent Organisation is not legally bound to the European Union.
History
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Seat
The European Patent Organisation has its seat at Munich, Germany.
Organs
The European Patent Organisation has two organs: the European Patent Office, which can be viewed as its executive body, and the Administrative Council, which can be considered as its legislative body to a limited extent, the actual legislative body for important matters being the Contracting States.
European Patent Office
The European Patent Office (EPO or EPOff in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Organisation) can be viewed as the executive body of the European Patent Organisation.
The EPOff headquarters are located at Munich, Germany, with a branch in Rijswijk (suburb of The Hague, Netherlands) and sub-offices in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria.
Presidency
The European Patent Office is directed by a president. Here is the list of former, current and future presidents of the European Patent Office:
- Johannes Bob van Benthem (... - ...), Dutch
- Paul Brändli (... - December 31, 1995), Swiss
- Ingo Kober (January 1, 1996 - June 30, 2004), German
- Alain Pompidou (July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2007), French
- Alison Brimelow (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2010), British
Languages
The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German.
Departments
The EPOff includes a Receiving Section, responsible for the examination on filing and the examination as to formal requirements of European patent applications, search Divisions, responsible for drawing up European search reports, Examining Divisions, responsible for the examination of European patent applications, Opposition Divisions, responsible for the examination of oppositions against any European patent, a Legal Division, Boards of Appeal, responsible for the examination of appeals and an Enlarged Board of Appeal.
The EPOff does not include any court which can take decisions on infringement matter. National jurisdictions are competent for infringement matter regarding European patents.
The European Patent Office and the Patent Cooperation Treaty
The European Patent Office acts mainly as a receiving Office, an International Searching Authority, an International Preliminary Examining Authority and an elected Office in the international procedure according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The Patent Cooperation Treaty provides an international procedure for dealing with patent applications (but does not grant international patents - which do not exist).
Administrative Council
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Member states and extension states
There are (as of April 1, 2004) 28 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom (see European Patent Convention article for the dates of entry in force in each country).
In addition there are five so-called "extension states" which recognise European Patents but are not member of the EPO. These are Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Croatia.
Further countries are expected to join the EPO in due course (probably Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia and Malta soon).
See also
External links
