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Terms and conditions of use for the EPO website
- Scope of application, modifications
- Purpose of the Web site, modifications, access
- User obligations, registration
- Content
- Copyright, use of content
- Technical errors and malfunctions, availability
- Security
- Liability
- Forums
- Conditions relating to web-based transactions
- Data privacy
- Protocol on Privileges and immunities
1. Scope of application, modifications
(1) Access to, and use of, any part of the website of the European Patent Office (hereinafter "the Website"), any document, material or other information, including text, images, sound and software, made available on the Website (hereinafter "Information") and any one of the services provided via the Website (hereinafter "Services") shall be subject to these terms and conditions of use (hereinafter "Terms and Conditions") and shall constitute acceptance of these Terms and Conditions by the user.(2) These Terms and Conditions may be superseded by other terms and conditions applicable to individual services or parts of the Website, irrespective of whether or not these Terms and Conditions expressly refer to such other terms and conditions.
(3) The European Patent Organisation (EPO) reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting amended Terms and Conditions on the website. The amended Terms and Conditions shall be effective on the date such amendments are posted. Users shall be entitled to object to such changes within two weeks of such posting. Continued use of the Website or its services shall constitute acceptance of the changes concerned. If a user explicitly objects to any new terms and conditions of use the EPO shall be entitled to revoke that user's access rights.
(4) In the event that any one or more of the provisions of these Terms and Conditions is for any reason held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, such unenforceability shall not affect any other provision, but the Terms and Conditions shall then be construed as if such unenforceable provision or provisions had never been contained herein and, in so far as possible, in such a way as to maintain the original intent of these Terms and Conditions.
2. Purpose of the Web site, modifications, access
(1) The general purpose of the Website shall be to enhance public access to information about the EPO and its activities and, in particular, to grant access to documents held by the European Patent Office in accordance with applicable legal provisions; it shall also offer additional services, such as facilities for interactive communication with the EPO and/or other users (subject to the specific provisions in section 9 and any other additional conditions as the case my be) and for web-based transactions (subject to the specific provisions in section 10 and any other specific terms and conditions as the case may be).(2) Subject to any legal provision governing access to documents held by the European Patent Office in electronic form, the EPO reserves the right to modify, limit or discontinue - in full or in part and without prior notice - the Services and Information available on the Website at any time, and also reserves the right to restrict access to the Website and to deny, without notice and at its sole discretion, any user's access to the Website or any part thereof.
3. User obligations, registration
(1) Users of the Website shall comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Users shall refrain from violating or attempting to violate the EPO's network security, and, in particular, from uploading or attaching files that contain viruses, corrupted files or any similar software or programs that might damage the operation of another user's computer. Users shall furthermore refrain from restricting or attempting to prevent or restrict in any way access to or use of the Website or any Services by other users (for example by generating unusually high numbers of service accesses, whether generated manually or in an automated fashion).The Website is not intended to be a source for bulk downloads of data. Users who wish to download large amounts of data should contact website@epo.org .
(2) Some of the Services available on this Website require prior registration. When registering, the user shall be obliged to provide correct and complete details, and to update them where necessary. Users must refrain from misusing any access authorisation granted to them (for example by transferring data to unauthorised third persons). By registering, the user agrees to be contacted by the EPO, where appropriate, via e-mail.
(3) Registered users shall be responsible, inter alia, for maintaining the confidentiality of their account and password to prevent unauthorised access to that account. Users shall take all necessary steps to ensure that the password is kept confidential and secure and inform the EPO immediately at website@epo.org if the password is, or is likely to be, used without authorisation.
(4) In the event of any violation of the above user obligations, the EPO shall be entitled to revoke the user's access rights without prior notice.
4. Content
(1) Unless otherwise stated, the Information shall be of a general nature only and shall not be intended to address the specific circumstances of any particular case, individual or entity. The EPO cannot guarantee that the Information is always comprehensive, complete, accurate and up to date. Consequently, the EPO shall not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage that may arise from reliance on the Information.(2) The Information shall in no case constitute professional or legal advice.
(3) Paragraph 1 of this section shall not apply to:
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European patent applications and European search reports (A documents) and European patent specifications (B documents) made available on the "European Publication Server" portal in accordance with and to the extent prescribed in the Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 12 July 2007 concerning the form of publication of European patent applications, European search reports and European patent specifications (OJ Special Edition No. 3, 2007, p. 97) and previous decisions superseded by this decision;
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files of European patent applications and patents made available in electronic form via the Register Plus service of the "Online Services" portal for online file inspection in accordance with and to the extent prescribed in the Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 12 July 2007 on the inspection of files (OJ Special Edition No. 3, 2007, p. 123) and previous decisions superseded by this decision;
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the Register of European patents made available via the Register Plus service of the "Online Services" portal for online consultation;
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the issues of the European Patent Bulletin published since 1 January 2005.
(5) Where parts of the Information bear the name of their author(s) or are otherwise clearly attributable to a person or institution not directly affiliated with the EPO (e.g. as in the case of recorded speeches or postings in Forums as defined in section 9), the EPO does not necessarily endorse these parts, nor can it guarantee their accuracy and reliability.
(6) The EPO does not make any representation or issue any guarantee, either express or implied, as to the accuracy, availability, suitability or content of the information or services hyperlinked from the Website. Reference on the Website to third-party events, statements, services or products does not necessarily constitute the EPO's endorsement of, or support for, those events, statements, services or products, which remain the sole responsibility of the respective third party.
5. Copyright, use of content
(1) Subject to legal provisions exempting official publications from copyright, all material published on the Website shall be protected by copyright and be owned or controlled by the EPO or the party credited as the provider or author of the content, software or other material. The EPO reserves all rights to the extent possible under the applicable copyright law.(2) Without prejudice to paragraph 3 below, users may use the Information directly obtained from the Website without acquiring a copyright or other proprietary rights to the material or information, unless otherwise stated and subject to the following:
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When such material or information is distributed or reproduced, it must appear accurately and the Website must be cited as its source.
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When such material or information is used to create adaptations by translation, conversion, modification or the creation of other derivative works, the user must ensure that
- any such adaptation takes reasonable steps to label or demarcate the alterations or otherwise clearly indicate that changes have been made to the original material or information;
- the author and/or the party credited as the provider of that material or information - whichever appears on the Website - is mentioned and the website is cited as its source, and
- the right to reproduce and distribute any such adaptation is
explicitly granted to any third party, under the same conditions as in this
Article.
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Where users establish links to a specific part or site of the Website, the Website must be the sole element of the browser's window, i.e. it must not appear within another website's frame.
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This right to use does not allow the user to copy all - or a substantial part of - data, data structure and software of EPO databases made available on the Website; in particular, it does not allow any use of data mining, robots, or similar data-gathering and extraction tools.
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Any commercial use of the content of EPO databases available on the Website for the provision of database search or information retrieval services, including marketing-related activities such as, but not limited to, search aids to the EPO and to third parties, shall require the conclusion of a separate Licence Agreement with the EPO.
(3) As an exception to the above,
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the reproduction, publication or reprint of parts
of the Information bearing the name of their author(s) or otherwise clearly
attributable to a person not directly affiliated with the EPO (as in the case
of recorded speeches), whether in whole or in part, in print or by electronic
means, shall require prior written authorisation of the EPO or the author;
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the official logo of the EPO and all trademarks registered by the EPO shall
remain protected and may not be used or reproduced without prior written consent
of the European Patent Office; requests for authorisation to use the official
logo of the EPO may be submitted to website@epo.org ;
- photographs and other graphical or image material may not be reproduced, published or reprinted without prior written authorisation from the EPO, unless the photographs and material are expressly made available for download.
6. Technical errors and malfunctions, availability
(1) The EPO aims at minimising technical errors and malfunctions. However, some data or other parts of the Information may have been created or structured in files or formats that are not error-free. The EPO cannot guarantee that the underlying files and the formats used are error-free and will not cause the user's systems to malfunction.In particular, the EPO cannot guarantee that XML data for documents published prior to 1 January 2006 accurately replicates the respective original documents. With respect to such documents, only the PDF and SGML versions are accurate replications or electronic publications of the respective original documents in terms of the decisions of the President referred to in section 4 (3) above, as the case may be. The HTML view of XML data is in all cases for users' convenience only; it cannot be guaranteed that this view accurately reflects the underlying XML data.
(2) The EPO cannot guarantee that the Website and the Services will always be available. Whilst the EPO is committed to ensuring that the availability of the Website will be essentially uninterrupted and that transmissions will be error-free, this cannot be guaranteed. Access to the Website and its Services may also occasionally be suspended, restricted or impeded in order to allow for repairs, maintenance or the introduction of new services or facilities.
(3) The EPO accepts no responsibility with regard to such problems (including, but not limited to, failure of performance, computer virus, communication line failure, alteration of content, etc.) incurred as a result of using this site or any linked external sites.
7. Security
For some Services and parts of the Website, the EPO shall offer data security by means of secure socket layer (SSL) technology. A number of the Services may be accessed by authorised users by way of a self-defined username and password, while others require identification by means of electronic signature in the form of a smart card issued or recognised by the European Patent Office. The issuance, use and recognition of smart cards is governed by specific terms and conditions of use.
However, the EPO cannot guarantee the absolute security at all times of data transmitted against attacks from third parties, nor can it guarantee the absolute security of the data transmission process.
8. Liability
(1) Without prejudice to Article 9 of the European Patent Convention, the EPO shall only be liable for damage caused by an intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty on the part of its permanent staff, other employees, representatives or agents. Where a claim for damages is based on simple negligence on the part of the EPO, the EPO shall be liable only to the extent that the claim rests on an injury to life, body or health or is attributable to a violation of an essential contractual obligation. In the latter case, if the claimant is an entrepreneur (within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code), the EPO's liability shall be limited to typical and foreseeable damage.(2) The EPO shall not be liable and accepts no representation or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the information given in documents bearing the name of their author(s) or otherwise clearly attributable to a person or third party not directly affiliated with the EPO (as in the case of recorded speeches, postings in Forums as defined in section 9, or data relating to the post-grant phase obtained from national patent offices). The respective author or speaker shall bear sole responsibility for the content of such parts of the Information.
(3) Any software made available for download on the Website is supplied "as is" without further warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the quality, performance, merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose. Without prejudice to section 8 (1) above, the EPO shall not be liable for any damages, including but not limited to direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive, exemplary or consequential damages arising out of the use or the inability to use such software, even if the EPO is advised of the possibility of the respective damages. Specifically, the EPO is not responsible for any loss of profits or revenue, loss of the use of the computer program, loss of data, the cost of recovering programs or data, the substitute program and any claims by third parties caused by the use of such software.
(4) The EPO shall not be liable and accepts no representation or responsibility for the functionality or contents of external web sites, services or software products hyperlinked from the Website. The use of such websites, services or software products shall be at the sole risk of the user.
(5) These provisions are not intended to limit the liability of the EPO in contravention of any applicable national law or to exclude its liability for matters which cannot be excluded under such law.
9. Forums
(1) Where the Website contains facilities for the online exchange of information or communication with the European Patent Office or other users, be it through bulletin boards, chat rooms, wiki sites, access to mailing lists or other message or document posting facilities (hereinafter collectively "Forums"), the user agrees to use the Forums only to send and receive messages and materials that relate to the Forum's subject and to respect generally accepted standards of politeness and correctness in communications. Forums shall be for non-commercial use only. In particular, users shall not-
defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or
otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of
others;
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publish, post, distribute or disseminate any
defamatory, injurious, obscene, indecent or unlawful material or information;
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use the Forum for postings relating to proceedings
pending before the EPO including those relating to specific patent
applications.
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upload or attach material or files that contain
software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by
rights of privacy and publicity) unless the user owns or controls the rights
thereto or has received all consent thereto as may be required by law;
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upload or attach files that contain viruses,
corrupted files or any other similar software or programs that might damage the
operation of another's computer;
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delete any author attributions, legal notices or
proprietary designations or labels in any file that is uploaded;
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forge the origin or source of software or other
material contained in a file that is uploaded;
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advertise or offer to sell any goods or services,
or conduct or forward surveys, contests or chain letters,
- copy, reproduce, republish, download, post,
broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, create a derivative work or
otherwise use content of a Forum in any way other than for their own personal,
non-commercial use. Where the user knows, or can reasonably be expected to
know, that the content or material cannot legally be distributed in such
manner, he shall not use or distribute it even for his personal, non-commercial
use.
(3) Unless otherwise stated, the EPO does not screen, edit or approve postings on the Forums; it therefore does not endorse any content of the Forum and disclaims any liability as to the content of a Forum. However, the EPO reserves the right, at any time and at its sole discretion,
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to remove content of a personal
character or posted contrary to paragraph 1 above,
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to edit any posting or topic
title,
- to merge, split, or move any
thread or sub-thread.
10. Conditions relating to web-based transactions
(1) Placing an order for products or services via the Website shall constitute an offer to the EPO to conclude a contract relating to the provision of such product or service. Any such offer may be accepted by the EPO by sending an e-mail or letter confirming such acceptance, dispatching the items or commencing with the provision of the respective services.Where applicable, the aforementioned confirmation e-mail or letter will also contain details of the amount to be paid and the payment method for the products / services ordered. Where such a confirmation e-mail or letter is sent, and unless otherwise stated, a contract shall not be concluded until the EPO receives the payment. Any notification merely confirming receipt of the order and containing the latter's details shall not constitute acceptance of the user's offer.
(2) Without prejudice to their statutory rights, users that qualify as consumers within the meaning of Section 13 of the German Civil Code (BGB) shall be entitled to cancel their order and return any items that they have received within 14 days of the day on which they received a purchased item or concluded the contract, whichever date is later. Such cancellation may be effected without giving any reasons either in writing or by returning the item. It is sufficient to dispatch the cancellation declaration, or the item, within that period to the following address:
European Patent Office
Vienna sub-office
Dir. 4.5.4 Product Distribution and Specialised Services
Rennweg 12
1030 Vienna
Austria
This paragraph shall not apply to individualised services (such as watch services, translations, legal status services, search services etc.), patent information products or software the carrier of which has been unsealed.
(3) With respect to products delivered or services rendered by the EPO in accordance with a contract concluded via the Website, the EPO shall be liable for damages arising from a breach of duty on the part of its permanent staff, other employees, representatives or agents only to the extent that such breach of duty is caused either wilfully or by gross negligence. The EPO disclaims furthermore all liability for external services or data obtained from third parties (such as bibliographic data, legal status data, etc) namely, but not exclusively, in respect of their completeness, currency and fitness for specific purposes.
(4) Delivery of EPO patent information products and services shall be subject to the General conditions for the delivery of EPO information products.
(5) With respect to enrolment for trainings or events via the Website, online registration shall constitute an offer to the EPO to conclude a contract relating to the participation in the training or event. Paragraphs 1 and 3 of this section shall apply mutatis mutandis.
(6) Unless otherwise stated, prices shall include any packaging and taxes. Delivery may be included in the price or may be charged for separately; where delivery is charged separately this shall be clearly indicated.
(7) Unless otherwise expressly agreed, all web-based transactions covered by this section 10 shall be governed by German law. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply.
11. Data privacy
(1) When the Website is accessed, certain information about users, such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, navigation through the site, software used and time spent, may be stored by the EPO or on its behalf. This information shall be used for website traffic analysis only, and not to identify users. No attempt will be made to monitor systematically individual users of IP addresses, or the actions that they perform.(2) Personal data shall not be recorded or saved without the user's express consent. By completing any data collection form on the Website, the user expressly agrees to the storage and processing of the data entered. All data provided by the user (such as, but not limited to, names, addresses, credit card details, account information, etc.) will be treated as confidential, stored and processed only for the purpose for which they were collected, and made available only to the unit responsible for dealing with them. In particular, personal data will not be passed on to third parties or published or made available for general access without the user's express agreement or unless necessary to comply with a request by or for the conclusion or fulfilment of a contract with that user, or unless the EPO is obliged to make such data available to public authorities.
12. Protocol on Privileges and Immunities
These Terms and Conditions shall be interpreted in such a way that the rights of the EPO, described in the European Patent Convention and the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the EPO, signed in Munich on 5 October 1973, are preserved at all times.