President of European Patent Office to visit Estonia

TALLINN - President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Antonio Campinos is to pay a visit to Estonia on Sept. 19.

The European Patent Office (EPO) was established in 1973 according to the European Patent Convention. A patent application can be submitted to the EPO in either English, French or German, and all applications are processed according to a common practice. This enables inventors, companies and researchers from all over the world to protect their inventions in the European market of around 700,000,000 people.

Estonia joined the European Patent Convention on July 1, 2002 and is a full member of the European Patent Office.

The purpose of the visit is to prepare for the next five-year cooperation period between the EPO and the Estonian Patent Office. The 20th anniversary of Estonia's accession to the European patent system is also celebrated. Attention is also paid to Estonian research and development, the outstanding achievement of which this year is the victory of Estonian inventors at the European Inventor Awards in one of the main categories, that is the industry category.

In Estonia, Campinos will meet with Estonian Patent Office director general Margus Viher and Minister of Justice Lea Danilson-Jarg.