We are delighted to announce that this month, recent UCL Laws LLM graduate, Evi Brachimi, is commencing a traineeship at the European Patent Office (EPO), secured via the highly competitive Pan-European Seal Programme.

The Pan-European Seal Programme (PES) gives high-achieving graduates the opportunity to apply for a one-year paid internship, in the multi-cultural environments of the EPO or the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The traineeships provide invaluable on-the-job professional work experience, and afford the opportunity to put the knowledge of intellectual property law acquired during their LLM studies into practice.

Evi’s traineeship is in the Patent Law and Processes Directorate, where she will receive additional legal training to enable her to be involved in the patent-granting process by drafting legal opinions on specific issues and assisting to prepare decisions in individual cases. She may also have the opportunity to support counsel in examination and opposition proceedings at the Office. 

Evi applied to the EPO via the programme EPO because of her interest in exploring how the law incentivises and protects innovation. She explained ‘working at the EPO will allow me to support trailblazers across different fields and shape how Europe responds to modern technological advancements like generative AI and clean energy solutions. This experience will also greatly elevate my professional development as an aspiring commercial lawyer. The role in the Patent Law and Processes Directorate stood out to me because it cultivates important client-facing skills as well as oral and written advocacy, which attracted me to the study of law in the first place.’

The Programme is only open to students nominated by PES Partner institutions, and UCL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the two IP offices in February 2024. Having joined this prestigious partnership, students enrolled on the Laws LLM programme and those completing IP-related PhDs will have the opportunity to apply annually for these traineeships. There are currently around 130 partner universities in over 35 European countries, and each year each Office typically offers around 100 placements across a number of disciplines, so Evi has done particularly well to secure her traineeship against such fierce competition.

Dr Alina Trapova, Assistant Professor in Intellectual Property Law, is UCL’s point of contact for the scheme. She participated in the PES programme at the EUIPO in 2015-2016. Speaking on hearing the news, Dr Trapova said:

‘The traineeship programme brings the EPO/EUIPO and our graduates together for a very valuable knowledge exchange, nurturing and mentoring opportunity. UCL LLM students study the legal aspects and theoretical debates in class, but seeing these applied in practice at these international institutions gives a completely different hands-on experience.’