What does a Fomalities Officer do?
Formalities Officers are professional administrators, responsible for the correct filing of all documentation and information for filing patent, design or trademark applications as well as the prosecution procedure till grant of a patent, design (model) or trademark. Besides the filing, the activities of a Formalities Officer usually include the organisation of the availability of all required information, the accessibility of the documents for stakeholders, the timely delivery of all documents, drawings etc. in according to the relevant time schedules and the coordination of in time payment of continuation taxes for existing patents, or taxes for designs and trademarks. Formalities Officers usually work in teams of IP Departments of large industries or private practise firms of patent or trademark attorneys.
What skills are required?
- State of the art know how of:
-European Patent Application procedures (EPO)
-International (PCT) procedure (WIPO)
-Local and foreign patent procedures
-Knowledge of Trademarks and Designs and prosecution requirements
-Electronic Communication and filing of applications - Accuracy. Any Formalities Officer should be capable of delivering accurate and precise work, as the job of the Formalities Officer is to strictly file all documentation during and after the application procedures and to observe the time schedules in the various regulations
- Attention to detail. Formalities Officers double check the correct filling of the documentation
- ICT skills. Any Formalities Officer is able to work with databases, ensuring the application procedure documents are put into clients IT system as well as maintenance and updating of information in the database
- Team work skills.