22^nd meeting of the Select Committee of EU Member States participating in the enhanced cooperation on Unitary Patent Protection (Munich, 9 October 2017)

The Select Committee of the European Patent Organisation held its 22^nd meeting in Munich on 9 October 2017.

The meeting was primarily dedicated to the preparation of financial aspects of the Unitary Patent. In this respect the Committee welcomed the submission of a draft statement of income and expenditure for 2018, which it endorsed and which was then incorporated into the Authorisation Budget of the Office. It also welcomed the proposed amendment to the Office Financial Regulations, introducing the required method of calculating the contributions payable by virtue of Article 146 EPC, as provided for in Article 50(e) EPC.

The Committee also took note of a presentation of the interfaces relating on the one hand to the electronic procedures for the filing of the request for unitary effect and on the other hand to the Register for Unitary Patent Protection. It much appreciated to be provided with an overview of all interfaces, confirming that the Office was ready for the implementing phase and was striving to ensure that the operations will be handled in a user-friendly manner.

Finally the Committee confirmed its intention to follow on ongoing progress and to meet again by the end of the first semester of 2018.

Select Committee Secretariat

153^rd meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (Munich, 10 and 11 October 2017)

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held its 153^rd meeting in Munich on 10 and 11 October 2017 under the chairmanship of Christoph ERNST (DE).

153^rd
meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation
(Munich, 10 and 11 October 2017) – Election

Mr António CAMPINOS elected
next EPO President

The Administrative Council of the European Patent
Organisation, meeting in Munich on 10 October 2017 under the chairmanship of Mr
Christoph ERNST (DE), has elected Mr António CAMPINOS to succeed Mr Benoît
BATTISTELLI as President of the European Patent Office (EPO). Mr CAMPINOS’
5-year term will start on 1 July 2018.

A Portuguese national, Mr CAMPINOS is currently Executive Director
of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). He is also a former
President of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). In the latter function, he
has been for many years the Portuguese representative on the Administrative
Council of the European Patent Organisation.

The Administrative Council, made up of the delegations from
all member states, is the Organisation’s legislative body. It is responsible
for supervising the activities of the Office, approving the budget and
appointing senior employees, including the President of the EPO.

The Chairman of the Administrative Council, Mr ERNST, congratulated
Mr CAMPINOS on his election: “I am happy that the Council was able to reach a
decision today on this very important matter, and to find in Mr CAMPINOS an
excellent candidate. With him, I am confident that our Organisation will add another
thriving chapter to its continued success story.”

The European Patent
Organisation is an intergovernmental organisation set up on the basis of the
EPC, which was signed in Munich in 1973 and entered into force on 7 October
1977. The Organisation currently has 38 member states – all of the 28 EU
members, plus Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. Its
task is to oversee the granting of European patents under the EPC by the
European Patent Office.

With nearly 7 000
staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service
institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin,
Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of
strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO’s centralised
patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent
protection in up to 42 countries, covering a market of around 700 million
people. The EPO is also the world’s leading authority in patent information and
patent searching.

Council Secretariat  

21^st
meeting of the Select Committee of EU Member States participating in the enhanced cooperation on Unitary Patent Protection (The Hague,
27 June 2017)

The
Select Committee of the European Patent Organisation held its 21st meeting in The
Hague on 27^th June 2017, under the chairmanship of Jerôme DEBRULLE,
Conseiller Général de l’Office Belge de la Propriété Intellectuelle.

The
Committee took note of a status report regarding the state of play of the
ratification procedures concerning the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court
(UPCA) and the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on
provisional application (Protocol on provisional application) in the
participating Member States. It shared with the European Commission the
objective to push for further ratifications and declarations to be bound, in
order to have from start as many participating States as possible. The
Committee further took note of an update provided by the European Commission on
the patent-related action plan concerning support measures for SMEs.

The
Committee further devoted time to the assurance that key technical aspects of
the Unitary Patent Protection (UPP) would be ready at the time of
implementation. Therefore, it took note of the progress achieved with technical
specifications for data transfer and the new Electronic Bibliographic Data, as
well as with the transfer of data concerning supplementary protection
certificates.

Another
focus of the meeting was the plan concerning external communication, promotion,
and awareness-raising campaigns to be envisaged in relation to the UPP package.
The Committee welcomed the comprehensive set of products and services being
developed and in particular an extensive User Guide. It was also updated on the
national measures accompanying the implementation of the UPP, which are being collected
via a questionnaire. An overview of all replies received will be published once
the UPP will have become operational. 

Finally the Committee took note
of the report by Estonia, the country holding the EU presidency for the 2^nd
half of 2017, on the successful finalisation of its own parliamentary
ratification procedure.  

Select Committee Secretariat

152^nd meeting of the Administrative Council of the
European Patent Organisation (The Hague, 28 and 29 June 2017)

The Administrative Council of the
European Patent Organisation held its 152^nd meeting in The Hague on
28 and 29 June 2017 under the chairmanship of Jesper KONGSTAD, Director General
of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office.

After the Chairman’s report on
the most recent meetings of the Board of the Administrative Council, the Council
noted the oral activities report given by the President of the European Patent
Office, Benoît BATTISTELLI. In the ensuing discussion on these reports, the
Council carried-out an exchange of views on the social situation. In
particular, it heard a statement by the Dutch delegation concerning this issue.
Once again the Council was pleased with the outstanding results reported by the
Office in terms of production, productivity and quality.

Under the heading of General
Affairs, the Council took note of the Office-wide re-organisation of services
which just started, and in particular of the principles and features applicable
to DG1 and DG2 in the context of digitalization, clearer responsibilities and
higher efficiency strived through end-to-end processing. It further exchanged
views on the need to ensure clarity of the new roles and reporting lines, and
agreed to the readjustment of the VP2 portfolio of activities. It therefore
unanimously nominated Alberto CASADO to the new position of Vice-President in charge
of all patent granting activities, supervising 3 Chief Operating Officers and
roughly 5000 examiners and formalities officers. The Council also took the
opportunity to bid farewell to the long-serving Vice-President DG1, Guillaume
MINNOYE, who is retiring on 30 June after an outstanding career.

The Council further noted the
oral reports from the chairpersons of its various advisory bodies on their
recent meetings: Patent Law Committee, Technical and Operational Support
Committee, Boards of Appeal Committee, Supervisory Board of the Reserve Funds
for Pensions and Social Security, Budget and Finance Committee and Select
Committee. In respect of the latter, it was informed by the chairman and by the
delegations of Malta and Estonia, being the countries holding until 30 June and
from 1 July the Presidency of the EC, about the latest developments and
progress on the Unitary Patent in the participating Member States, including
the particular events in the United Kingdom and Germany.

The Council then proceeded with a
series of appointments and elections. It firstly unanimously elected Christoph
ERNST (DE) to become Chairman of the Council for 3 years, starting on 1 October
2017. It then re-appointed one member of the Board of Auditors, Ola HOLLUM
(NO). The Council also decided to re-appoint to the Boards of Appeal only those
persons put forward for re-appointment.

The Council also agreed the
procedure for designating the deputy of the President of the Boards of Appeal
and took note of the intended procedure to handle after-service activities of
former members of these Boards. Finally the Council unanimously endorsed the
proposal prepared by its Chairman regarding the procedural preparations for the
election of the future President of the Office to take office on 1 July 2018.

Under the heading Legal and
International Affairs, the Council took note of the significant development of
validation agreements and endorsed the requests of Brunei and Angola to enter
into negotiations on a validation agreement. It then had a broad exchange of
view on the exclusion from patentability of plants and animals produced by
essentially biological processes, complementing the discussion in the latest
Committee on Patent Law and reflecting inter alia the recent production by the European
Commission of a Notice on the issue. The Council approved the Office proposal
to amend the EPC Implementing Regulations in order to ensure very swiftly as
much harmonization and legal certainty as possible. It further took note of the
forthcoming adjustments of the Examination Guidelines, as a consequence of this
decision, and indicated that it will revert to the issue in due course, when
experience is gathered with the new provisions.

Turning to matters concerning the
Reserve Funds for Pensions and Social Security (RFPSS), the Council welcomed
the outstanding results achieved by the Administrator and his team in 2016, and
decided to defer its decision on the new proposals for a revised composition
and competence profile of the RFPSS Supervisory Board. It gave the Board 28 a
mandate to examine the question in collaboration with the President of the
Office.

In personnel matters, the Council
welcomed the comprehensive and balanced proposal for revised Service
Regulations, covering the standards of conduct and ethics and the reform of the
internal justice system, as a step forward in improving the social situation.
It thus unanimously adopted the proposal and indicated that a review of the
progress achieved should take place in due course i.e. within 2 to 3 years from
now, based on experience gathered in the meantime.

The Council then unanimously
approved the Financial Statements for 2016, together with the Board of
Auditors’ annual report on the 2016 accounting period, and discharged the
President of the Office and the Administrator of the RFPSS. It further
delivered a positive opinion on the initial 2018 budgetary orientations
including the Office proposal concerning the freeze of the inflation-related
fee adjustment.

In addition, the Council decided
that the first ever annual report on quality, as well as the annual social
report, should be tabled for discussion in its October meeting.

Finally the Administrative
Council paid tribute to Jesper KONGSTAD, who served as its Chairman for more
than 7 years and will step down on 30 September, and also bid farewell to the
head of the Swedish delegation, Susanne ÅS SIVBORG.

Council Secretariat

151^st meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (Munich, 15 and 16 March 2017)

The Administrative Council held its 151st meeting in Munich on 15 and 16 March 2017, with Jesper Kongstad, Director General of the Danish Patent Office, in the chair.

After the Chairman’s activities report, covering in particular the last meeting of the Board of the Administrative Council, the Council noted the activities report given by the President of the European Patent Office, Benoît Battistelli. The Council was pleased with the excellent results achieved by the Office.

The Council had an exchange of views on the social situation at the Office and on the issue of the appointment procedure for the next President.

The Council re-elected the chairman of the Committee on Patent Law, Sean Dennehey (GB), for a term of three years. It then made three appointments to the Supervisory Board of the Academy of the European Patent Organisation and a number of appointments and reappointments to the Boards of Appeal.

Lastly, the Council heard brief oral reports on the unitary patent by the Maltese delegation representing the country holding the EU presidency in the first half of 2017, as well as by the representative of the European Commission and the chairman of the Select Committee.

Council Secretariat