08/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Beijing on 5 December, the European Patents Office (EPO) and the Chinese Patent Office celebrated twenty years of cooperation. EPO President Alain Pompidou said cooperating with industrial states undergoing strong expansion, like China, is one of the pillars of the EPO's policy. Launched in the 1970s under the initiative of Johannes Bob van Benthem, the first EPO President, it turned into genuine cooperation in 1985, becoming a close partnership. Once a year,...