ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL
Reports on meetings of the Administrative Council
Report on the 106th meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (26 to 30 June 2006)
The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held its 106th meeting in The Hague from 26 to 30 June 2006 under the chairmanship of Mr Roland GROSSENBACHER (CH).
After noting the activities report presented by its chairman and, for the first half of 2006, by the EPO President, Professor Alain POMPIDOU, the Council elected Mr Jesper KONGSTAD (DK) member of the Board of the Administrative Council for a three-year term starting on 1 July 2006.
The Council made the following appointments and reappointments:
- Mr W. Zellhuber (DE), appointed chairman of a technical board and technically qualified member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, both with effect from 1 January 2007
- Mr A. Lindner (DE), appointed technically qualified member of the boards of appeal with effect from 1 October 2006
- Mr B. Schachenmann (CH), reappointed legally qualified member of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal with effect from 1 July 2006.
The following reappointments are for a term of five years but will end on the earlier of the five-year term and the last day of the month in which the age of 65 years is reached:
- Ms U. Tronser (DE) and Mr E. Lachacinski (FR), each reappointed legally qualified member of the boards of appeal, with effect from 1 October 2006
- Mr R. Zimmermann (AT), reappointed technically qualified member of the boards of appeal, with effect from 1 August 2006
- Mr D. Valle (IT), reappointed technically qualified member of the boards of appeal, with effect from 1 September 2006
- Messrs P. Ammendola (IT), R. Bekkering (NL), H.-P. Felgenhauer (DE), A. Maaswinkel (NL), P. O'Reilly (GB), K. Poalas (GR), C. Scheibling (FR), W. Sieber (DE) and M. Stock (DE), each reappointed technically qualified member of the boards of appeal, with effect from 1 October 2006
- Ms M.C. Ortega Plaza (ES), reappointed technically qualified member of the boards of appeal, with effect from 1 January 2007.
The Council approved the revision of the Agreement between the European Patent Organisation and the Kingdom of the Netherlands concerning the branch of the EPO at The Hague ("Seat Agreement").
The Council noted a progress report on the establishment of a Nordic Patent Institute (NPI) and awaited further developments. The NPI concerns an enhanced cooperation in the patent field between Denmark, Iceland and Norway.
The Council gave a unanimous favourable opinion on the basic assumptions for the business plan, the 2007 budget and the 2008-2011 financial plan. It noted the revised 2006 plan as well as the basic assumptions for the 2007 plan and decided to lift the freeze on 152 examiner posts decided upon during its 104th meeting.
Regarding trilateral strategic issues, the Council noted that the EPO President would submit, in co-operation with the Board of the Administrative Council, a draft mandate for the EPO President relating to trilateral strategic issues, for adoption by the Council.
The Council noted the status report on the Community patent delivered by the Austrian delegation, representing the state holding the EU Presidency in the first half of 2006, as well as a report on future work delivered by the Finnish delegation, representing the state holding the EU Presidency in the second half of 2006.
The Council decided to postpone until its October 2006 meeting a decision on the adoption of a new specimen contract for vice-presidents.
The Council concluded its strategy debate by deciding that:
- a utilisation pilot project should be completed as proposed by the EPO and be launched in January 2007. Participants in the utilisation pilot would be the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark and Germany. The objectives of the utilisation pilot project are to test the process by which work carried out during the priority year on a first filing at a national patent office of the EPC contracting states can be further utilised by an applicant and the EPO in the treatment of a subsequent filing. Participants in the so-called utilisation stakeholders supervisory group are Sweden, Belgium and France;
- a working party should be set up with the mandate and terms of reference proposed by the EPO regarding a European Quality System. Such system is to provide a foundation for participating national patent offices of the EPC contracting states to achieve continuous improvement in the quality of their products and services and to enable them to participate in any utilisation of their search results by the EPO. The working party will be chaired by Ms Alison BRIMELOW (GB) and will comprise Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Romania, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and a representative of each of UNICE and epi;
- the implementation of various user support activities projects presented by the EPO should be tested by means of a pilot project relating to reclassification, the development of a consortium concept for special searches and further studies relating to translation work, research projects and non-patent literature. Such consortium would be open to all member states;
- the new co-operation policy between the EPO and the EPC contracting states is to comprise the different areas suggested by the EPO for this purpose and particularly the electronic tools of EPTOS. The features and the details of implementation of the programmes will be examined by the competent working groups of the Administrative Council on the basis of the EPO proposals, within the limit of a budgetary envelope to be fixed annually so that the Council can decide on a policy at its October 2006 meeting; and
- the Board of the Administrative Council should be mandated to conduct a study on the "big picture" of how the European patent system should best deal with its future workload, as proposed by the EPO. Such study is to be concluded by the end of 2007. The Council noted that the Board of the Administrative Council would work in close contact with all stakeholders and would report regularly to the Council.