EIP Partner Derk Visser has concluded a series of seminars held to provide updates for patent attorneys on major changes to the European Patent Convention.
As a recognised authority on the EPC, Derk is regularly asked to give seminars on the EPC in collaboration with the European Patent Office. The series of one-day seminars, ‘EPC2DAY - Impact of the changes by EPC 2000’, was organised by the Academy of the European Patent Office and the epi; the seminars began in May 2010 and were held in Munich, Helsinki, Stockholm, Milan, Eindhoven, Paris, Copenhagen and Madrid, concluding in London on 8 July 2011.
After the entry into force of the revised European Patent Convention (EPC 2000) in December 2007, a substantial number of changes to the Implementing Regulations and the Guidelines for Examination have been implemented, which will have additional effects on the work of patent attorneys. The seminars gave patent attorneys an overview of the experience of the EPO with the EPC 2000 and the impact of the subsequent amendments to the Implementing Regulations and the Guidelines, especially in the light of the Raising the Bar initiative of the EPO.
The EPO presented their experience with the EPC 2000 and subsequent changes to the law and procedures, with the epi explaining the resulting impact on their daily work, providing critical, but constructive comments. Derk spoke on behalf of the epi at the seminars in Munich, Eindhoven, Copenhagen, Madrid and London.