Webinar: Professional Ethics in the Work of European Patent Attorneys

Venue

Online

Description

Ethical questions and dilemmas are commonly encountered in professional life. As a result professionals often develop instinctive understandings of certain ethical topics.

Despite this professional bodies, including epi, enact rules and guidance intended to codify ethical behaviour and set limits on what is acceptable in the professional context.

Why are such rules and guidelines needed? Do they exist purely to summarise the instinctive viewpoints that practitioners develop based on their experiences, and present them in ways that clients and other lay people will follow? Alternatively, are there more fundamental underpinnings that need to be taken into account?

This webinar will start with a brief look at the scientific and historical reasons for the existence of codes of professional ethics. It then will examine the concept of ethical behaviour in a monopolistic profession and address the question of the extent to which codes of ethics are needed in our work. From there the webinar will examine the key texts affecting European Patent Attorneys, and in particular will focus on the Founding Regulation of epi, the Regulation on Discipline and the Code of Conduct. This section will seek to summarise the main points of these documents in a convenient manner.

The concluding part of the webinar will explore ethical considerations in relation to modern developments in professional life, focussing on aspects of the morality of patenting certain areas of science and the impact of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, on our professional activities.

The webinar will be recorded and only made available on our epi-learning platform to participants who have registered for the webinar.

Speaker

• Timothy Powell

Target group

Level of expertise
Intermediate / advanced level

Medium
Online training

Technical requirements
In order to attend the on-line course participants need a computer with an internet browser and a high-speed broadband internet connection. For the webinar, epi uses Zoom. Security settings on local Firewalls need to be checked. In order to make full use of the webinar session, we recommend to use headsets.

To access to the webinar epi sends out a link and the guidelines for participants shortly before the webinar.

Application and use of personal data

Please do not use capital letters when filling the online registration form. Please indicate only personal email addresses.

By registering for this event, you accept that all your personal data may be used by the epi and authorised third parties (e.g. EPO) to the extent necessary to provide services or content you have requested. Please note our leaflet on privacy policy regarding the processing of your personal data.  

Please note our "private policy" regarding the processing of your personal data.

Working language

• English

Contact

For further information, please contact Barbara Riffert ([email protected]).

Minimum number of participants

20*
*If the minimum number of participants was not reached by the registration deadline, the event will be cancelled. In this case the epi will inform you immediately.

Registration deadline

Registration is open until 30.04.2025 The order of receipt by epi will determine the attendance in case of over-subscription.