1. The European Patent Office at a glance Christos Dimopoulos Head of the Vice-President's Office International/Legal Affairs (DG5)

2. Who we are

3. Locations The EPO has offices at five different locations. Its headquarters are in Munich.

4. Number of staff in 2010 Munich3 718 The Hague2 710 Berlin274 Vienna112 Brussels4 Total6 818 Around 60% are patent examiners

5. Staff from 31 different countries (2010) Country Number of staff ATAustria237 BEBelgium359 BGBulgaria35 CHSwitzerland74 CYCyprus8 CZCzech Republic20 ESSpain447 DEGermany1 851 DKDenmark75 EEEstonia7 FIFinland49 FRFrance1 225 GBUnited Kingdom507 GRGreece165 HUHungary29 IEIreland82 HRCroatia2 Country Number of staff ITItaly507 LTLithuania4 LULuxembourg69 LVLatvia5 MTMalta2 NLNetherlands609 SESweden125 PLPoland62 PTPortugal87 RORomania115 SISlovenia14 SKSlovakia15 TRTurkey29 Others2 Total6 818 ISIceland1

6. Our Strategy

7. Our strategy - main features (1): Since its inception almost 35 years ago, the EPO is financially independent (income from fees cover all outgoings and investments) 38 Members States to the EPC (include all 27 members of the European Union, plus Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey). European patents are recognised in two further countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Beyond the borders of Europe, the EPO is active in facilitating the protection of European patents in neighbouring countries. In 2010, the EPO signed a Validation Agreement with Morocco; similar is under discussion with Tunisia. The EPO is a global player. Based on its broad technical expertise, it is heavily involved in the efforts to introduce a unitary patent for Europe and to harmonise the patent system worldwide.

8. Our Strategy - main Features (2): The EPO plays a leading role in developing and implementing electronic tools for patent searching and examination. Patent offices have for many years been satisfied users of the tools and databases set up and developed further by the EPO. The EPO complements the work of the national patent offices (NPOs) in Europe. The European patent system is a two-tier environment where the EPO plays the central role in the entire patent grant procedure. The national patent offices develop a dynamic IP and innovation policy at local level. An ambitious co-operation policy associating the EPO with the NPOs, in particular via the European Patent Network (EPN), is to be implemented to optimise co-operation between them. In order to maximise the potential and efficiency of its activities and to avoid duplication of work, the Office therefore concludes agreements with IP organisations such as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

9. The way forward

10. In January 2011, two external studies on finance and IT commissioned by the President of the Office were discussed, both within the EPO and with its external stakeholders:  The IT study: confirmed the reputation of EPO's current IT systems, but stressed the need for the EPO to play a leading role in making the European patent system more efficient and collaborative.  The Financial study: confirmed that the EPO is capable of financing its medium-term projects, but pointed out the risks inherent in its social liabilities, e.g. its pension system.

11. The way forward In March 2011, the Administrative Council (AC) unanimously endorsed the proposals put forward by the President of the Office, based on the following scenario for boosting efficiency:  enhancing the quality of EPO products and services  controlling costs  maintaining overall fee levels  implementing effective IT tools, simplifying our processes  introducing new forms of work (e. g. part-time home working) and improving working conditions (new TH building project)  developing EPO’s leadership role in international co-operation  setting up the EPN: intensified co-operation between the EPO and the national offices of our member states.

12. Making Europe the best place for innovation

13. (a European Patent can be valid in up to 40 countries with some 600 million inhabitants)  European Patent Network  Enhanced collaboration with OHIM  Unitary Patent protection

14. Improving access to patent documents

15. Patent searching will improve as access to EPO databases improves. The EPO has the world’s most complete set of patent data and the most extensive collection of patent-related literature (Espacenet, for example, is available to millions of users free of charge). Three recent examples of continuing efforts :  Climate change and identifying clean-energy technologies (CETs)  Machine translation and EPO agreement with Google  Access to ITU documentation

16. Simplifying the global patent system

17.  EPO is member of the IP 5, a forum composed of the five largest patent offices in the world (EPO plus the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and US patent offices), representing 90 % of the global patent activity. Main IP5 goals are:  eliminate unnecessary duplication of work among the offices,  enhance patent examination efficiency and quality,  guarantee the stability of patent rights.  The EPO also enjoys direct relations with WIPO. Together they strive into making the global patent system more user-friendly and harmonising the patenting process as much as possible.

18. More information? www.epo.org

19. Thank you for your attention