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Deadline

07 Nov 2021

The Boards of Appeal (BoA) are the final judicial instance in proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO). Their task is to review decisions taken by the EPO’s administrative divisions. The members of the Boards of Appeal are independent in their decisions and are bound only by the European Patent Convention (EPC).

The Legal Services of the BoA consist of the Legal Research Service and the Legal Advice Service. The Legal Research Service provides the BoA with legal support and disseminates information on their case law. The Legal Advice Service provides legal advice to the President of the BoA.

As a lawyer in the Legal Research Service, you will:

  • draft reports and studies for the BoA and the President of the BoA on legal questions, in particular concerning substantive and procedural patent law
  • analyse and report on the case law of the BoA as well as patent-related decisions handed down by national courts in the EPC contracting states
  • prepare patent law-related publications in English, French and German
  • support the President of the BoA on patent law-related questions
  • organise and give lectures for internal and external training purposes

As a lawyer-linguist in the Legal Advice Service, you will:

  • revise a wide variety of documents to be tabled before internal governing bodies
  • draft high-quality documents and reports on legal and administrative questions, paying special attention to linguistic precision and correctness
  • draft publications for the website and the intranet
  • take minutes of BoA internal and external meetings
  • participate in internal legislative initiatives
  • liaise with stakeholders within and outside of the BoA and the EPO

As a lawyer in the Legal Advice Service, you will:

  • analyse legal questions and propose workable and goal-oriented solutions, in particular in institutional frameworks
  • organise meetings of governing bodies, including co-ordinating the submission of documents to these meetings
  • co-ordinate and implement legislative initiatives
  • draft documents and reports on legal and administrative questions
  • negotiate with stakeholders within and outside of the BoA and the EPO
  • represent the President of the BoA in meetings with EPO internal and external bodies

Apply if you have:

  • an advanced university degree in law
  • an excellent knowledge of English
  • excellent legal analysis and drafting skills
  • very good communication skills (oral and written)
  • a highly service-oriented approach
  • a systematic, results-oriented, pro-active and flexible approach
  • experience working in an international environment

As a lawyer in the Legal Research Service, you will also need:

  • excellent legal research skills
  • an interest in or knowledge of the field of industrial property, ideally patent law
  • very good practical IT skills, especially in using electronic search tools

As a lawyer-linguist in the Legal Advice Service, you will also need:

  • experience working for a judiciary body, a governmental institution or an intergovernmental organisation
  • experience liaising with governmental or administrative bodies

As a lawyer in the Legal Advice Service, you will also need:

  • the ability to anticipate organisational and structural needs
  • the ability to manage and implement change
  • several years’ experience working for a judiciary body, a governmental institution or an intergovernmental organisation, during which you will have developed and proven your strong negotiation skills
  • experience liaising with governmental or administrative bodies
  • proven proficiency in institutional law matters at a national or, preferably, international level

Your qualifications

  • Diploma of completed studies at master’s level or – in exceptional cases – equivalent professional experience
  • Excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language (English, French or German) and the ability to understand the other two; in exceptional cases, excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language and working knowledge (at least B2) of another (in such cases, the willingness to learn the third language and to reach level B2 within a set time frame would be required)
  • Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation

Process and timeline

Please state in the application form the position in which you are most interested and which best matches your profile and experience.

The successful candidate/candidates will be selected on the basis of qualifications and relevant experience, supplemented as appropriate by interviews, tests and/or a personality questionnaire. Interviews are provisionally planned as from week commencing 25 October 2021.

* after deduction of EPO internal tax and before deduction of staff contributions to the social-security and pension schemes. The salary range depends on experience.

  • Job Type: Experienced Job
  • Career Sector: Patents
  • Area of Specialism: Chemistry, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Life Sciences, Electronics, Technology, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Engineering - Other, Physics
  • Experience Level: Associate, Senior Associate, Partner/Director
  • Location: Munich
  • Contract Type: Temporary/Contract
  • Employment Type: Full Time
  • Salary: Depending on experience
  • Date Posted: 11 Oct 2021
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