Procedural fees and fees payable for the maintenance of granted European patents make up the bulk of EPO income. The EPO is supervised by an Administrative Council made up of representatives of the governments of the Contracting States. The EPO has its headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague, and a sub-office in Berlin. The department responsible for patent information and publications is located in Vienna. The EPO has an international staff recruited from its Member States.
Examiners carry out patent search, substantive examination, and opposition procedures.
The best way to illustrate the main tasks of a patent examiner is to examine the different stages of the grant procedure in which the examiner plays a role. Each application first undergoes a formal check in the Receiving Section. The subsequent procedures, which normally comprise a search stage and a substantive examination stage are carried out by examiners. During the search stage the technical content of the application is studied and a search is carried out for anything similar, using both traditional means and the latest on-line information retrieval techniques. The results of the search are then supplied to the applicant in a search report, the contents of which are also published with the application.