Two of the patent attorneys working at Berggren Group passed the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) this year: Marjut Lattu-Hietamies, specialist in IT patenting, from Tampereen Patenttitoimisto Oy; and Timo Pitkänen, specialist in electric and mechanical engineering and qualified EU Design Attorney, from Berggren Oy Ab.
The European Qualifying Examination, which consists of four separate papers, qualifies the attorneys to represent clients directly before the European Patent Office (EPO).
According to Marjut Lattu-Hietamies, the EQE brings know-how as well as more efficiency in working methods:
–The European Qualifying Examination and the preparation for it is, in fact, a learning process. You do not just study the law and the practices of the European Patent Office but you also adopt more efficient ways of working and information retrieval.
Lattu-Hietamies works at Berggren's Lappeenranta office where services of a European Patent Attorney have not been available locally until now.
–Now that I am a qualified EPA, I hope to provide more know-how that will benefit firms in South-Eastern and Eastern Finland.
All the attorneys who have passed the EQE know well that the process is challenging.
–The examination itself naturally required an effort and developed and improved my professional skills, Timo Pitkänen says.
–Arrangements were necessary to reconcile the work and private life, for which I am very grateful to my family.
After the qualification of Pitkänen and Lattu-Hietamies, the staff of Berggren includes as many as thirty professional representatives before the EPO.