epi Information 4/2010

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120 Council Meeting Information 4/2010substitute and associate members to committee meetings,expenses for their attendance to be reimbursed.The aim was to provide flexibility for the Chairs in anendeavour to promote efficiency. There was a lengthydiscussion on this complex matter, some participants inthe meeting not being convinced that CVs and „motivation“letters would cure the problem of „silent“ ornon-working Committee members. The President was ofthe view that the Chairs had to have more flexibility ofoperation, must themselves be suitable as leaders, andthat a pool of possible members should always be availablefrom which Committee members could be drawn.National groups should also be made aware of „sleeping“members as in general it is they who nominateCommittee members and could therefore take action toreplace an ineffective member.The President reported that he had had a meeting withCommittee Chairs to discuss the issues and a furthersuch meeting should ideally be held after the nextCouncil election. The meeting was of the view that aprofessional support person should be engaged to assistthe Committees in their work by, for example, reportinglaw and rule changes to them. This had been proposedpreviously by the President. The meeting did not form apositive view on the seven proposals put forward by theGroup.The second session was opened with a presentation byWalter Holzer, a former epi President who has recentlybeen appointed „Responsible“ for international relationsand development of the CEIPI and who has been amember of the AC of CEIPI for the last eleven years.He informed the meeting that CEIPI is part of theUniversity of Strasbourg, and provides basic coursesfor sitting the EQE, and Master courses on matters suchas litigation. In 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) was concluded with epi, CEIPI also participating inthe work of the Academy set up by the EPO. In additionto training courses, CEIPI also has courses on re-sitting,and „cramming“ for the EQE, all assisted by a network oftutors. There are three „head“ tutors and ten othertutors from DGI of the EPO, which pays for them. Heobserved that there was a need for more tutors fromnational groups, and a problem on training for candidateswho would not physically go to Strasbourg. Therewas also the problem of a relative low pass rate, and adisparity of pass rate between Member States, e.g. apass rate of 52% in the UK, 40% in Germany and 36%in France in 2009.Jean-Michel Zilliox, Director Operations and CustomerCare at the European Patent Academy, then gave a veryinteresting and well-received presentation on the Academy,which was set up by the AC of the EPO in 2004 andoperates under the EPO President and the AcademySupervisory Board of the AC. He observed that theAcademy would not have been set up without the activesupport and participation of the epi. The target audiencesidentified by the Academy were: Institutionalstrengthening (national patent offices), Professional representatives,Innovation support, Judicial training andAcademia. The Academy co-operates with 40 nonmemberstates of the EPC, and with European Judges(to promote harmonisation of jurisprudence). The Academyalso seeks to teach its students the commercialimplications of patent ownership as a business asset. TheAcademy has close co-operation with CEIPI, and inaddition to preparation for the EQE, aims inter alia toprovide training for „grandfathers“ in new memberstates, training for patent attorney support staff, and aTutors’ Network, a new generation of tutors beingsought. E-training had been introduced which whilstnot replacing the classroom, does provide a 24hr trainingopportunity via an EQE Forum, which has 1800 candidatesand often up to 300 are online simultaneously.Mr Zilliox sees enhanced co-operation and partnershipwith the epi in the future. He concluded by reporting thatThe German Institute for Invention (DIE) has nominatedthe European Patent Organisation’s European PatentAcademy for the prestigious „Diesel Medal“, also knownas the German „Inventors’ Oscar“.Mr Fritz Schweinzer (Chair of the PQC) then followedwith an interesting presentation on the work of hisCommittee, which is concerned inter alia about thelow EQE pass rate, the difficulty of teaching candidatesin all the member states, and the training of „grandfathers“in new member states. The PQC had increasedthe number of „mock“ EQEs, the training of supervisorsand the mentoring of candidates. Early registration forthe EQE and the sending of information to all candidateshad also been implemented. The committee was alsoworking at CPE, and how best it might be implemented.After this presentation, there was a long discussion,during which it emerged that, as one long-term EQEexaminer put it, the examination has become less andless relevant for what attorneys need for everyday practice.This is partly due to the length and complexity ofsome questions/papers, the seeming lack of appreciationby EPO EQE examiners as to the work of an attorney,which is not limited to the EPC, these and other reasonsleading to an overall lack of fairness in testing a candidate’sability to be granted a „right to practice“. MrZilliox said the Academy would look at the pass rate andtry to find reasons to improve it, and would also look atmeans to enhance tutor education, which might improvematters in the long run.No conclusion as such was reached, but the overviewof education and this opportunity to voice concernsabout the exam were by general consensus muchappreciated by the participants.
Information 4/2010 Council Meeting 121Report of the 69th Council Meeting20 November 2010, BerlinTerry Johnson, Editorial Committee1. The President opened the meeting, thanked theGerman group for their organisation, and welcomedthe delegates.2. The meeting stood in silence for a minute to honourthe passing of Mr Koitel from Estonia.3. The Agenda was adopted with the addition of twofurther topics relating respectively to (1) a motion ofMr Leyder that articles in epi Information of morethan half a page in length in one official languageshould be accompanied by a precis in the other twoofficial languages, and (2) that a decision on attendanceat an upcoming SACEPO Working Party onRules should be taken.4. The minutes of the last Council Meeting (in Strasbourg)were approved as were decisions from thatmeeting following a discussion to include as a decisionMr. Mercer’s motion in paragraph 13 of theStrasbourg minutes for the Task Group on reorganisationof the epi to provide proposals by spring 2011to include reduction of Council membership to lessthan 100 with a minimum of one member percountry and to provide rules for split constituencies.5. The Treasurer reported, including reference to thebudget for 2011. The former book-keeper hasadmitted his offence, court and proceedings are intrain. As a result of the activities of the formerbook-keeper, it was decided in conjunction withthe epi Finances Committee to appoint a new firmof external auditors. After considering the credentialsof possible firms, one, Consilia, was deemed tobe the most suitable and the Board confirmed theirappointment towards the end of September 2010.Consilia will have an expanded role from that of theformer firm, including restructuring of the bookkeepingdepartment so as to be able to conductbookkeeping according to the German HGB (Handelsgesetzbuch)standard, which would be of benefitto the epi and its members. To assist in this, newsoftware has been brought in. Restructuring is nearlycomplete. The exercise will cost an additional EUR35,000. Part of the restructuring and the initialproblem has resulted in the epi no longer acceptingcheques for example for annual subscriptions. If acheque is sent in, it is returned to sender as a matterof course. In the future, each member will be sent anumbered invoice for his/her membership fee. Consiliahope to provide a final report by the end of thisyear for 2009.Despite the foregoing, the Treasurer reportedthat the budget for 2011 did not require any drasticincrease and indeed that as the membership was justover 10,000, he saw no need to increase the membershipfee for 2011, which would thus stay at EUR160. The epi Finances Committee confirmed that itapproved maintenance of this fee at EUR 160for2011.Council voted on maintenance of the membershipfee of 160 EUR and acceptance of the budget asproposed, as follows: For: 110; Against: 0; Abstentions:2The motion was thus carried and will be effectivefor 2011.6. The President reported on his and the Presidium’sactivities since the last Council meeting. He has beenvery busy, as usual. Some points may be of particularinterest to members:(i)The report included his PowerPoint slides presentedby him to the AIPLA/FICPI colloquium inEdinburgh, 17-18 June 2010 on the PatentOffices’ Backlog Crisis. (See issue 3/2010for areport on that meeting).(ii) He mentioned a disciplinary case, on which hehad filed a Notice of Appeal. There is no outcomeon this case yet. The Board has asked theDisciplinary Committee to consider publicationof cases after final decision.(iii) The Presidium met with the Chairs of Committeesto see how the work of the Committeescould be enhanced. This had been welcomed bythe Chairs, particularly the proposal to employ aprofessionally qualified person to assist them intheir work.(iv) He had had a fruitful meeting with the Presidentof the „Patentanwaltskammer“ to exchangeviews on topics of mutual interest.(v) The 125 th meeting of the AC of the EPO hadbeen attended (see further report in this issue).The topic of machine translation was discussedin the AC and the epi Board had discussed itpreviously too, without coming to a firm view onto whether epi should support this or not. In themeantime, the AC approved at the 125 th meeting!a project (in co-operation with the EC) toinvestigate machine translation (see report ofthat meeting).(vi) A meeting had been held with the new Presidentof the EPO (see report in 3/2010). PresidentBattistelli is supportive of continuing with regularmeetings. Mr Battistelli had accepted aninvitation for him and his management teamto attend the next epi Board meeting (Budapest,March 2011).(vii) The President reported that on the occasion ofthe 125 th AC meeting, the opportunity had been
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