Like many of you, I was especially pleased at the outcome of last week’s European Council regarding the proposed European patent court. Agreement was finally reached, at the highest level [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I took up my duties as President of the EPO on 1 July 2010 and the time seems to have flown since then. Not surprisingly, I suppose: it was quite [...]
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 [...]
This week, I had the opportunity to present the EPO’s 2010 statistics to the European and international press. Analysing the figures, two key messages emerge. Firstly, with incoming filings 11 [...]
