The IIB and the EPO

AFTER BEING INDEPENDENT for 30 years, the International Patent Institute (IIB) is to become part of the European Patent Office which becomes operational next year. It is therefore appropriate to consider the institute's history and to examine its vital role under the new regime. The IIB was founded at The Hague under a diplomatic agreement of June 6 1947 originally signed by four countries—Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands—and at later dates by the governments of Monaco, Switzerland and Turkey. The agreement was signed by the United Kingdom on August 2 1965.