Following on from the first agreement on our machine translation programme, reached in November 2011 with the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO), this week in Tokyo I was very pleased to [...]
First of all, let me wish you all a Happy New Year! This is traditionally the time to review the achievements of the old year, and to look ahead – [...]
Will we get a decision this year? On 5 December, the EU Competitiveness Council discussed the unitary patent and European Patent Court package. Although no final decision was taken, well-informed [...]
The latest yearly bilateral meeting between the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO) and the EPO, held in Chongqing (South West China) last week, was further testimony to the long and fruitful [...]
This week, the EPO had the pleasure to host the annual Trilateral conference. We held it in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, with my counterparts David Kappos (USPTO) and Yoshiyuki Iwai (JPO) [...]
I have just had the pleasure of opening the EPO Patent Information Conference 2011 which is taking place in Kilkenny (Ireland) from 18 to 20 October. Kilkenny occupies a special [...]
Last week, I had the privilege of paying my first official visit to Serbia, which became a member of the European Patent Organisation exactly one year ago. Serbia enjoys a [...]
On 5 and 6 July, a group of European delegates (from Denmark, France, Germany, the UK and the EPO) gathered in Tegernsee (Germany) at the EPO’s invitation for an informal [...]
Major decisions on patent system reform have very recently been taken on both sides of the Atlantic. Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill envisaging a move [...]
The European patent system is a two-tier environment in which the European Patent Office is the single central authority empowered to grant patents for all our 38 member states whilst [...]
