Pan-European Seal Professional Traineeship Programme
The Pan-European Seal Professional Traineeship Programme (the Pan-European Seal) is a programme of cooperation between the two of the world’s largest IP offices, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), and selected academic institutions specialized in IP.
CEIPI, together with its EIPIN partners, founding members of the Pan-European Seal, piloted the programme in 2014.
The aim of the programme is to bring closer universities and the job market, which is quite specific for intellectual property. Thanks to this programme, CEIPI students of the final year of studies, have a possibility to apply through CEIPI for one-year paid internships within the EUIPO and the EPO starting in October. In May, students of eligible educational programmes of CEIPI are invited to submit their candidatures for participation in the Pan-European Seal. CEIPI preselects a number of candidates from which the EUIPO and the EPO will choose their trainees.
Main eligibility criteria for the programme:
- - nationality of EU member states (for traineeship at the EUIPO) and member states of the European Patent Office (for traineeship at the EPO). A limited number of trainees may be selected from third countries;
- - completion of at least one online learning course with certificate proposed by the EUIPO and/or the EPO (IP Teaching Kit, co-developed by the two offices, is a helpful supplementary online teaching tool):
- for traineeship at the OHIM “CTM in a Nutshell” or “RCD in a Nutshell” course (EUIPO Academy Learning Portal (OALP))
- for traineeship at the EPO: “Introduction to the European patent system” and “Using CPC” (for engineers) or “The EPO as PCT authority” (for lawyers) (EPO online training)
For the online courses, it is imperative for all the candidates to registeras members of the Pan European Sealon the Pan-European Seal website (upper right corner).
Additional information on the selection process will be sent to students of eligible educational programmes of CEIPI in May.
More information about the programme is available on the Pan-European Seal website.