Pan-European Seal: Professional IP Traineeship Program
EPO Traineeships
The University of Vienna is a member of the Pan-European Seal Professional IP Traineeship Program.
The Pan-European Seal Professional IP Traineeship Program (the Pan-European Seal) is a comprehensive IP program, which forms a bridge between academia and the IP labor market.
Jointly promoted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), two of the world's largest IP offices, this program targets leading European universities as strategic partners and offers up to 100 paid traineeships every year, which start in mid-September and are 12 months long. The training takes place at the headquarters of EUIPO (Alicante, Spain) and EPO (Munich, Germany).
High-achieving young university graduates have the opportunity to gain valuable on-the-job professional work experience in the multicultural environments of the EUIPO and the EPO. The Pan-European Seal Program provides a framework for early talent detection through these traineeships at the EUIPO and EPO.
Application requirements
All candidates must fulfill the following application requirements:
(a) Applications are open to students, who graduated or will graduate from one of the University of Vienna's Master, PhD, or Postgraduate Programs in the academic year 2021-2022, i.e. in the period from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022. Applications are also open to students, who graduated or will graduate from the LLM Program in European and International Business Law in the academic year 2021-2022 (i.e. in the period from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022). Therefore, also students, who will obtain their LLM degree until September 30, 2022, are eligible to apply as well. Such students must be aware that any traineeship offered by the EPO will be conditioned to the submission of the LLM degree certificate (it can be a provisional certificate) upon arrival at the EPO by mid-September, or beginning of October at the latest.
(b) All candidates must also have a full undergraduate university degree certificate (or its equivalent).
(c) Nationality: Candidates must have the nationality of one of the 38 EPO Member States or the 2 EPO Extension States.
(d) All candidates must have knowledge of one of EPO's three working languages (English, French, German) at a minimum attested level of B1 following the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
(e) The same candidate cannot be included in both shortlists, the EUIPO shortlist and the EPO shortlist.
Application documents:
(a) CV in English in Europass Word format.
(b) Motivation letter in English, clearly indicating the choice of traineeship location (EUIPO or EPO), including the preferred EPO business area (law, international relations & communication, business administration, economics & finance, science & engineering).
(c) Undergraduate university degree certificate (or its equivalent).
(d) LLM degree certificate. Students, who plan to complete the LLM program until September 30, 2022, must submit a declaration of the University of Vienna, which states that it is very likely that the student will complete the LLM program until September 30, 2022.
Selection procedure
Application deadline: February 6, 2022 (23:59 CET).
Please send your complete application as one single pdf file to the following e-mail address: international.office@univie.ac.at
In addition, please mail a copy of your application to maria.sturm@univie.ac.at.
The pre-selection procedure of the University of Vienna will begin immediately after the expiration of the application deadline. The University of Vienna will send a shortlist of potential candidates (nominations), which may include 5 candidates from the present academic year, to the EPO. Applicants, who have received a space on the shortlist, will be informed accordingly by the LLM program manager. However, inclusion in the shortlist does not guarantee that the candidates will be selected by the EPO and offered a traineeship position at the EPO.
February 15 - March 15, 2022: Once the candidates have been informed by the LLM program manager that they are short-listed, all shortlisted candidates must submit their application through the e-recruitment tool, which is available on the Pan-European Seal Programme section of the EPO Traineeship website, until March 15, 2022.
April/May 2022: Selection process at EPO. Suitable candidates will be invited to a phone/skype interview.
June 2022: Selected candidates receiving the offers for the traineeship.
May-September 2022: Selected candidates are required to complete the following EPO e-learning courses until the start of the traineeship:
- Introduction to the European Patent System
- The EPO as PCT Authority.
Mid-September 2022: Start of the traineeship at EPO, Munich
All selected candidates must provide the original LLM degree certificate of the University of Vienna to the EPO Traineeship Unit on their first day at the EPO.
The financial support for the traineeship at the EPO will amout to EUR 2,000 per month (gross). This amount is subject to local taxes and social contributions (deduction approx. 20%).
Links
EPO Traineeship Brochure 2022-2023
EPO Pan-European Seal Program Slide Deck 2022-2023