The European Patent Office’s (EPO) online platform offers a wide range of online learning material and courses for four broad topics. These are:
– Searching for Patents
– Applying for Patent
– Patent law & practice
– Intellectual property in business
These online courses are aimed at anyone interested in learning about search, classification, opposition and other patent-related topics. The EPO offers over fifty courses with over 10,000 members registered.
What are the benefits of the course offered?
The courses offered are of two types, namely tutored courses and self paced courses.
The tutored courses are time bound and additionally offer webinars or forums as well as live chat with experts. The self- paced courses are available at all times of the day throughout the week allowing a flexible learning experience.
Some of the featured courses offered by the EPO’s e-learning centre are
1. Event: Case Law | EPO boards of appeal[1]
2. Patent litigation A to Z[2]
3. Use patents: cases from research results[3]
4. Examination Matters: Webinars[4]
5. Business use of patent information
6. Compulsory licensing in Europe
7. The art of efficient searching – Intermediate level
8. How to apply for a patent
9. Introduction to the European patent system
10. Patent Classification
11. Patent Grant Process
How to get started?
First, browse through courses available at the EPO. The courses include downloadable learning materials, videos, quizzes, live webinars, and forums. Many of these features are directly accessible without registration.
For access to a course which requires you to be registered in the platform, one may need to create a free account. This involves two simple steps:
* Register using your e-mail address
* Click on the link in the confirmation e-mail you receive to complete your registration
For courses that require a fee, secure payment is provided. The EPO also has a newsletter that may be subscribed to for all the latest news.
[1] “Boards of Appeal and key decisions” is an annual conference where experienced patent practitioners, judges and staff from national patent office’s meet to discuss the most recent key decisions and developments in the EPO’s boards of appeal case law.
[2] This course covers. Procedures to obtain a patent and legal framework, Patent disputes, Outcomes to patent disputes and Alternative Access
[3] This course is the third part of the ‘From research to business’ series, developed especially for universities, university spin-offs, research centers and similar organizations.
All courses of the series: Course: Think patents; Workshop: Intellectual Property Rights; Cases: Use patents
[4] The contents of this course are: Selection inventions – the rules of the game; Amendments and unsearched subject-matter; CII: ensuring information is the key to patentability; Therapeutic methods – Article 53(c) EPC; Post-published evidence – a risky game!; Experimental data: impact on patentability in medical applications