The European Patent Office (EPO) examines European patent applications, enabling inventors, researchers and companies from around the world to obtain protection for their inventions in up to 44 countries through a centralised and uniform procedure that requires just one application.
The EPO is one of the largest public service organisations in Europe, employing some 6300 staff of 34 different nationalities. Of them, over 4 000 are highly qualified scientists and engineers working as patent examiners in all fields of technology.
