Careers home page > Life at EPO

Hello, Bonjour, Hallo!

At the EPO there are a wide range of activities and clubs that foster a strong sense of belonging and community. Meet some of our employees and gets some unique insights into what working at the EPO is like.

Meet Christina

Patent examiner in the field of agriculture.

Meet Miguel

Patent examiner in the field of electrical components and devices. 

Meet Cristina

Patent examiner in the field of culinary equipment and food treating devices.

Patent Examiner
in the area of medical patents

Patent Examiner
in the area of telecommunications

Patent Examiner
in the area of mechanical engineering

  • EPO's Family Friendly Conditions  

    Combining your career and family life is important to us at the EPO. Hence, the EPO offers additional benefits to create a comfortable “home away from home” for your family. The benefits include EPO in-house crèches in Munich, multilingual education at the European Schools in Munich or The Hague, or financial support towards any childcare facility or school, and holiday activities. 

     

     

  • Family Friendly Conditions at the EPO

    Combining your career and family life is important to us at the EPO. We believe that professional development can only occur when family matters are taken care of. Hence, the EPO offers additional benefits to create a comfortable “home away from home” for your family. The bandwidth of benefits includes places at EPO in-house crèches in Munich, multilingual and multicultural education at the European Schools in Munich or The Hague, or financial support towards any childcare facility or school.  During school holidays we also support with appropriate children's activities.

    For more information kindly refer to the EPO Package and the unique benefits.

     

     

     

     

  • We all come together at the EPO

    We want to help you to integrate into the new environment. To this end, our colleagues at the AMICALE, an employee organisation, offer frequent social events and a wide variety of clubs where staff can get together and pursue shared interests. We are bringing EPO staff – and their families – together to foster a sense of belonging as well as a good work life balance. So how about learning Chinese, play in a big band or giving fencing a try?

     

     

  • We all come together
    at the EPO


    We want to help you to integrate into the new environment. Our colleagues at the AMICALE, an employee organisation, offer frequent social events and a wide variety of clubs where staff can get together and pursue shared interests. We are bringing EPO staff – and their families – together to foster a sense of belonging and a good work life balance. So how about learning Chinese, play in a big band or giving fencing a try?

     

     

Sustainability at the EPO

World Water Day Clean up

To celebrate World Water Day our colleagues from Munich, Vienna & The Hague came together to bring about positive change by cleaning up the green areas around the nearby rivers & sea. Even the smallest actions can have a big impact on protecting and preserving this precious resource.

CodeFest on Green Plastics

In February 2023 the EPO organised the first ever public CodeFest that tackled a key sustainability challenge: ridding the planet of plastic waste. Teams of up to five participants aged 18 or over where called to register and take up the challenge to write an AI code that improves access to patent information on green plastics, helping to rid the planet of plastic waste.

Study on Sustainable Technologies

In Spring and Summer 2023, the EPO and the European Investment Bank (EIB) conducted a study of companies in Europe and the United States. Linked to this study, a survey was conducted on behalf of the EPO focusing on clean and sustainable technologies to understand how companies commercialise their products and services and create economic value.

EPO and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

As part of the response to feedback from our users requesting increased consistency of practice, we undertook the most thorough ever  reorganisation of our operational units in 2022. Our unprecedented digital transformation enabled us to bring neighbouring technical fields from different sites together under one manager. This reorganisation, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) resulted a new  structure of eight technology communities.

  • EPO and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    As part of the response to feedback from our users requesting increased consistency of practice, we undertook the most thorough reorganisation of our operational units in 2022. Our digital transformation enabled us to bring neighbouring technical fields together under one manager, based on the UN SDGs.

  • EPO and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    As part of the response to feedback from our users requesting increased consistency of practice, we undertook the most thorough reorganisation of our operational units in 2022.
    Our digital transformation enabled us to bring neighbouring technical fields together under one manager, based on the UN SDGs.

Spotlight: What's on at the EPO

The EPO Art Collection

Art and architecture significantly contribute to the EPO’s corporate identity by bringing cultural responsibility to life.

iLearn Days

The iLearn series is an internal campaign for learning giving all staff members the opportunity to take part in different learning sessions spread throughout the year. 

 

Campus Days

Campus Days form an essential part of the New Ways of Working (NWoW), offering a way for us to reconnect face-to-face and preserve our sense of belonging within the hybrid workplace.

  • Listen Up to the EPO's Talk Innovation Podcast

    “Talk innovation: unlocking technology” is brought to you by the European Patent Office (EPO). Expert presenters and guests – including our patent examiners - provide their perspective on technology trends and highlight ground-breaking inventions. Join us to learn more on the role of patents and the intellectual property (IP) system in supporting society and the economy.

  • Listen Up to the EPO's Talk Innovation Podcast

    “Talk innovation: unlocking technology” is brought to you by the European Patent Office (EPO). Expert presenters and guests – including our patent examiners - provide their perspective on technology trends and highlight ground-breaking inventions. Join us to learn more on the role of patents and the intellectual property (IP) system in supporting society and the economy.

  • Living our Values

    The EPO is  a community of people committed to excellence with incredible skills and knowledge, from a multitude of different countries, backgrounds and traditions. This handbook maps how we live out those values in our daily work. By doing so, it aims to encourage greater self-awareness of how we behave in the workplace.