EPO of­fers sup­port for Eu­ro­pean pa­tent ad­mi­ni­stra­tion cer­ti­fica­tion

The European Patent Office’s (EPO) Candidate Support Programme (CSP) will be extended from 2026 to also cover applicants preparing for the European Patent Administration Certification (EPAC). The CSP programme provides financial support as well as tutoring and training to prepare for the EPAC examination to be held in October 2026.

EPAC is a European certification aimed at paralegals, patent administrators and formalities officers to validate their knowledge and skills related to the management of patent procedures. The certification covers, among other things, the filing, prosecution and grant of European and international patent applications, as well as post-grant procedures. The certification also covers unitary patents.

Applications open in January 2026

The conditions for participation in the CSP programme and the application form will be published in mid-January 2026. The application period for the CSP programme opens on 30 January 2026 and closes on 17 February 2026.

The Finnish Patent and Registration Office will select the EPAC applicant for the CSP programme by early March. The training and tutoring sessions will begin in mid-March.

More detailed information on the CSP application process can be found in the links below:


For further information, please contact:

Jaakko Hosio, Head of Division
Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH)
Email: firstname.lastname@prh.fi
Tel. +358 29 509 5760