Contents ........................................................ 3
General introduction ............................................ 5
Emergence, embodiment and establishment of a vision From
the origins to 1973 ............................................. 9
Introduction ................................................... 12
1 Patents: from national to universal ......................... 15
2 Patents and European integration ............................ 39
3 From the technical to the political: the Intergovernmental
Conference and the Diplomatic Conference .................... 65
Conclusion ..................................................... 89
Success on an unimagined scale 1973 to the late 1980s .......... 93
Introduction ................................................... 96
4 The Interim Committee of the European Patent Organisation
1974-1977 .................................................. 101
5 The EPO turns into a reality ............................... 119
6 The Office grows and comes to an initial equilibrium ....... 137
7 New President, new era? .................................... 161
8 The EPO at the heart of an uncertain international system .. 18З
Conclusion .................................................... 200
Adaptation, tension, a new century: the price of success
From 1990 to 2010 ............................................. 205
Introduction .................................................. 208
9 The Office and information technology ...................... 213
10 The European Patent Organisation: a new dimension .......... 229
11 The Office's internal balance of power ..................... 243
12 The Protocol on Centralisation as a bone of contention ..... 253
13 The EPO as a benchmark in key patentability issues ......... 263
14 The EPO's role in a new phase of construction for
European patents ........................................... 271
15 Better co-operation, better communication - the EPO's
global innovation role ..................................... 281
Conclusion .................................................... 290
Overall conclusion ............................................ 294
Epilogue: past and future ..................................... 298
Appendix ...................................................... 301
Contemporary art at the EPO ................................... 302
Statistics .................................................... 306
Footnotes ..................................................... 308
Bibliography .................................................. 321
Photo credits ................................................. 322
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