The original aim of the EPO’s architects was to overcome the national fragmentation of the patent system. The EPO offers a centralised procedure for receiving and examining patent applications, up to the point at which a patent is granted: this streamlined patent granting system has proved remarkably successful. The EPO is a practical example of European integration and represents what Europe can achieve when it decides to pool its resources and work together towards a common goal. A new chapter in this success story began at the end of last year when the EU institutions finally set their seal on the package of measures to introduce the unitary patent. For the European patent system and its users, this decision represents a historic breakthrough, bringing Europe closer to the creation of a truly supranational patent system, something that has been under discussion for several decades and eagerly awaited by industry.

As Europe’s knowledge-based economy moves forward, the importance of a strong and integrated patent system continues to grow. In this sense the advent of the unitary patent is a momentous step. It is a development which has been made possible by the co‑operation between the EPO and its EU partners and which will further strengthen the ties between us. European projects are built on a common willingness to achieve goals. It is our duty to remain on the course charted by the founding fathers, each generation in turn playing its part. I would like to recall the words of one of those men, Robert Schuman, a truly visionary European. He used to call for “that fusion of interest which is indispensable to the establishment of a common economic system” as a means not only of fostering growth and prosperity, but also of establishing “a wider and deeper community between countries”.

That aim still rings true today and the EPO is committed to doing everything in its remit to achieve Europe’s common goals.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Besides giving access to a vast collection of patent data, the PATLIB centres also provide – depending on their resources – general services such as helpdesks and public reading rooms, or tailor-made ones like searches, technology watches and competitor monitoring. Many of the centres have expanded their activities beyond patents to include trademarks, designs and copyright.

Nowadays, Europe has well over 300 such centres, and that number is increasing every year. Because they are highly diverse, and also to help them make best use of the latest information technology, some two years ago the EPO launched a pilot project involving 17 PATLIB centres from 11 member states. The aim of this project is to help the centres evolve from their original “patent library” role and become first-point providers of information about patents, capable for example of delivering sophisticated searches including an explanatory search report which will be understandable for customers without experience in patent information. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality and exhaustiveness of the patent information provided to a wide variety of target audiences, such as SMEs, local government, academics and R&D personnel.

For this project, extensive distance learning material has been developed and will be made available to the entire PATLIB network. This meeting in Munich was a good opportunity to take stock of the progress achieved. A general review will be performed at the end of the year to decide how to proceed from 2014 onwards, but results so far are very promising. In the framework of the European Patent Network, EPO co-operation policy is driven by the principles of complementarity and efficiency. In this regard, the PATLIB centres, which are familiar with the needs and requirements of local industry and can work in the language of the country concerned, play a very valuable role.

The EPO attaches great importance to supporting the PATLIB network, which serves the patent system – and the public interest – by fostering a favourable climate for innovation.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

This year, the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office (epi) is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its foundation, and I was very pleased to be present at the ceremony held last week in Vienna to mark this occasion. I would like to take this opportunity to thank again Mr Tony Tangena, the Institute’s President, for his very kind invitation to attend. The epi has been a close partner to the EPO from the outset: its existence was already enshrined in the European Patent Convention. As the professional body that represents the European patent attorneys of all 38 EPO member states, it has more than 10 000 members.

A main reason for our close cooperation is the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) which we organise jointly for patent professionals seeking to be entitled to represent applicants before the EPO. Well over 2000 candidates sit this rigorous examination each year at one of the twelve examination centres across Europe. The average pass rate is around 25%. We are currently engaged in a modernisation exercise to improve the efficiency and quality of the EQE and also to widen its geographical reach and ensure that the results reflect the diversity of our 38 member states (at present, more than 80% of the successful candidates come from only five countries).

To this end, we have initiated a wide range of measures, including the implementation of a new IT system to support the organisation of the examination, and the provision of dedicated training activities by the European Patent Academy, for example in the EQE Candidate Support Project for candidates from member states having fewer than five EQE-qualified representatives. The EPO will continue to make available the necessary human and budgetary resources to support the EQE, while striving to enhance the overall efficiency of the system.

In addition to our regular meetings with epi representatives on the various official bodies of the EPO, we have been pursuing for some years a specific programme, known as Praktika, to foster a better mutual understanding between EPO patent examiners and private practitioners with regard to their respective needs and obligations. The programme offers opportunities for patent attorneys to observe at first hand the work of a patent examination cluster or an EPO board of appeal and, vice versa, for EPO examiners to spend a month in a patent attorney’s office. Experience has shown that both parties find this enlightening and useful.

From the EPO’s point of view, a rich dialogue with the user community is of paramount importance, as one of the main drivers for the further development of the European patent system. We congratulate the epi on its 35th anniversary and look forward to the continuation of our successful partnership.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

Last week, in Paris, I put my signature to a Memorandum of Understanding between the EPO and the Institut français on the subject of French language training. Similar agreements for English and German, the EPO’s other two official languages, were signed in March with the British Council and the Goethe Institute. They represent a further concrete step in the implementation of the Cooperation Roadmap which the EPO drew up in 2011 with the aim of enhancing the European patent network. This strategic objective is being pursued through a range of measures, in particular by the provision of training for national patent office staff and other key actors in the patent system, including patent judges and aspiring European patent attorneys.

What is the purpose of these agreements? When the EPO was created, six of the seven founding states had English, French or German as a national language. The situation today is very different: the EPO now has 38 member states, 27 of which do not have an EPO language as an official language. This issue needs to be addressed, to remove the potential language obstacle for EPO job applicants and trainee patent attorneys from these countries. The three non-exclusive MoUs, signed with specialised institutions that have a broad network in Europe, will make it possible to provide tailor-made courses in the field of patents at local level, in close partnership with national patent offices.

In other areas, too, the EPO has invested systematically to lower the language barrier. This is the case, for example, in patent information, with the ongoing implementation of Patent Translate, our free machine translation service, which facilitates access to the vast stock of technical documentation in our databases. The system already offers 14 language pairs, including English-Chinese, and further languages are in the pipeline.

The language training programme is a very recent development, but it is already active and I am confident that the measures will make a real difference.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

After the adoption of the EU regulations on the unitary patent in December 2012 and the recent signing of the international agreement on the Unified Patent Court, a further milestone was reached last week with the convening of the so-called Select Committee. Representatives of the 25 member states participating in the unitary patent met with the EPO in Munich for the first time, and the European Commission as observer, to launch the Committee’s work.

That this first meeting could take place so soon after the signing of the agreement on the Court is in my view a clear sign of the political will of the participating countries to implement the unitary patent as soon as possible. The results were very positive. The Committee elected two highly qualified and committed participants in the unitary patent process – Jerôme Debrulle, head of the Belgian delegation, and Lubos Knoth, head of the Slovak delegation – to serve as its chair and vice-chair. It also initiated the discussion of its rules of procedure and launched an ambitious plan for its further work in the coming months.

One of the Select Committee’s main tasks will be to determine the appropriate level of fees for the unitary patent. Three constraints will have to be taken into account: first, the unitary patent must be attractive for the user community; second, it must be self-financed and budget-neutral for the EPO, since not all of the 38 EPO member states are involved; and third, some member states have expressed concerns about the expected amount of renewal fee income from the unitary patent, compared to the current situation. The EPO, which has been entrusted with granting and administering unitary patents, will provide the necessary expertise to facilitate efficient and balanced solutions.

In parallel, the member states will have to conduct their own national ratification procedures for the international agreement on the Unified Patent Court. Some of them have already taken the first steps towards this, and many are expected to ratify by the end of 2014. The Preparatory Committee for the Court will have to be very active in the coming months and address a number of complex issues, such as setting up a common IT system, to ensure that the Court can become operational in due time. The availability of a central jurisdiction, guaranteeing high-quality decisions, is crucial to the unitary patent system. Here, too, the EPO can contribute technical expertise to facilitate the creation of the court, for example, through the judicial training activities which the European Patent Academy has been organising for some years.

The participants in these preparatory meetings are fully aware of the challenges lying ahead and the work remaining to be done before the promised new instruments – the unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court – can be delivered to the users of the patent system in Europe. But the commitment to the process is strong, and those involved are determined to achieve a successful, sustainable outcome. I think we can confidently expect this to materialise in a reasonable time frame.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

This week, the EPO’s Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) published the results of its activities in 2012, investigating three topics of its own choosing: fee policy, quality and patent thickets. The valuable reports on these sensitive issues are accompanied by recommendations for improving the patent system. The ESAB is an independent body, and its views do not necessarily mirror those of the EPO, but we shall certainly take account of the Board’s conclusions in our own deliberations on policy and future projects.

I have noted in particular the Board’s general emphasis on quality as the main answer to the challenges facing the patent system. This accords with the strategic orientation adopted by the EPO, which has launched a range of initiatives to enhance quality by improving its processes and procedures. We are also liaising with other patent offices around the world to see how we can work together to make life easier for our users while boosting the overall quality of the patent system. Here, feedback from our users is crucial. I have been particularly gratified by the results of recent user opinion surveys, carried out by independent bodies, showing that real improvements have been registered in the quality of the EPO’s products and services.

Regarding fee policy, I have always attached great importance to the accessibility of the patent system. In my former capacity as head of the French IP Office, I implemented a 50% fee reduction policy for SMEs, research institutions and individual inventors. The European patent system is often seen as geared towards big companies. Looking at the facts, however, a somewhat different picture emerges.

We recently conducted an internal survey among a representative sample of our users, looking at the patent application process and at patent information. The preliminary results indicate that the EPO’s services are being used by very significant numbers of smaller applicants. In 2012, 25% of the European patent applications filed with the EPO came from SMEs (as defined by the EU), 6.5% from universities and public research institutions, and 6% from individual entrepreneurs. A further interesting aspect is that two-thirds of the SMEs filing applications with the EPO are based in Europe. These figures are most encouraging. However, they should not lure us into complacency: we must sustain our efforts to make the system more accessible and raise patent awareness.

For 2013, the ESAB programme encompasses three new topics which will be of interest to many of our stakeholders: the unitary patent, the Unified Patent Court and the question of a grace period. Up to now, the discussion on these issues has been dominated by legal considerations; the ESAB will look, instead, at their economic ramifications. This will certainly feed into the further debate on these major projects, especially at the implementation stage.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

Today, 8 March, is International Women’s Day. This is an occasion to reflect on the EPO’s attitude to the position of women and on what it does as an employer to address their concerns.

For some years, one of the major innovation challenges for Europe has been to encourage young people to study science and technology. Many countries across Europe have dedicated programmes to increase the number of science graduates. In some fields of technology, moreover, there is an urgent problem of gender imbalance. The EU has set up programmes to counter this and promote gender equality in science.

The EPO, as an international organisation, recruits some 200 to 300 scientists and engineers per year from all over Europe. Today the EPO has 7 000  staff, 4 100 of whom are university-trained specialists working as patent examiners. Women account for 33.6% of the EPO’s workforce.

The EPO has developed a very attractive working environment, enabling staff to balance work and family life.

Last year, we launched a home working programme. Around 600 of our staff members are already enjoying the benefits of working from home for part of the week. Nearly 50 % of those taking part in the scheme are women, who now find it easier to manage their busy lives outside the office while continuing to work full-time.

Apart from the intellectual stimulus of working for the EPO and various career opportunities, there are some very concrete reasons for parents to choose the Office as an employer, including daycare provision for children, flexible working hours, a comprehensive health and social package, and access to multilingual schools.

The EPO is taking active steps to improve the position of women at all levels of responsibility. Since 2010, when I became President of the EPO, women have been appointed to three out of eight senior management positions, at the rank of Principal Director. This increases their share of senior posts from 12% to 18%. However, the proportion is in my view still too low, and there is room for further improvement.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

Yesterday in Brussels, a historic moment arrived with the signing by 24 EU member states of the international Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC). This completes the unitary patent package, following the recent entry into force of the two Regulations adopted in December last year. After more than 40 years of fruitless attempts to address the complexities of a transnational, specialised litigation system, this breakthrough is a remarkable achievement. Our warmest congratulations are due to the Irish Presidency and its predecessors, to the European Parliament and to the EU Commission, in particular Commissioner Barnier.

In the near future, for a potential market of more than 400 million consumers, inventors will have the option of a one-stop shop at the EPO for the examination of their patent applications and the handling of the post-grant phase, together with a unified litigation system. For many applicants and patent holders, this will offer major benefits by reducing costs, simplifying procedures and strengthening legal certainty. However, the patent package as a whole will still have to be implemented in a way that makes the new system attractive. This applies to both the unitary patent and the Court. Representatives of the user community have emphasised that the quality and efficiency of the new litigation arrangements and the level of renewal fees for the unitary patent are key elements which will determine whether the system succeeds in practice.

Thorough preparation is needed for the new system to become a reality. First, the process of ratification by national parliaments has to be efficiently conducted, although the fact that 24 EU member states were already able to sign the UPC Agreement on the appointed day is encouraging. Work must also begin at a more technical level. The EPO is prepared to do what is needed to facilitate rapid progress in the implementation of the unitary patent. For the UPC as well, the quality of the implementation is vital and should be given the highest priority. The EPO is already engaged in the internal preparations for its future tasks in the post-grant phase. We will be ready whenever the whole package becomes operational.

The challenges that lie ahead will certainly require careful thought. We are now on the brink of the implementation phase after the long-awaited decisions. Today, let’s celebrate this major step forward in improving the conditions for innovation and competitiveness in Europe.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

Last week, the EPO had the pleasure of hosting the 20th session of the PCT Meeting of International Authorities (MIA) in Munich. 2013 is a significant year, with the 35th anniversary of the first ever PCT filing and the 40th anniversary of the signing, in 1973, of the European Patent Convention. There have always been strong links between the two patent systems, which were negotiated and adopted in parallel. The PCT was even enshrined in the European Patent Convention.

The PCT, which today has 146 member states across the globe, continues to be praised by users as the best international platform for protecting patents. For the EPO, too, the PCT is a top priority. The EPO established more than 72 000 international search reports in 2012 and is the main provider among International Search Authorities. To ensure that our services continue to meet the expectations of users, especially with regard to quality, efficiency and timeliness, we presented last year a set of concrete proposals for strengthening the PCT system. The MIA, bringing together 20 years of experience in the efforts of PCT authorities to improve the PCT, is a particularly appropriate forum for discussing these suggestions.

In the view of the EPO, emphasis should be placed on the consistency issue in PCT procedures, and on raising the quality of PCT products. We have already submitted a proposal for the development of a PCT metrics framework and the regular publication of quality reports by all ISAs to facilitate the monitoring of progress. I think that the PCT authorities, which have a specific mandate and status, conferred by the Assembly of the PCT Union, have a particular duty to address quality at the highest level. I am sure this work will also support the progress of the discussions on the PCT Roadmap currently being conducted by the PCT Working Group in Geneva.

These efforts at international level complement the EPO’s internal endeavours to improve its PCT products and services in accordance with the high expectations of our users. This aim is especially reflected in the EPO’s IT Roadmap, which identifies PCT support as a main objective.

Benoît Battistelli
President

Benoît Battistelli
EPO President

Last week, David Kappos took his leave from the US Patent and Trademark Office, after serving as its Director since August 2009. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him very warmly on his outstanding achievements. In less than four years, David carried out a major programme of change at the USPTO, leading it along the path of modernisation at a breathtaking pace and on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Two aspects of his tenure stand out:

First, everyone recognises that David played an instrumental role in the introduction of the America Invents Act, one of the biggest-ever reforms in the legal framework of the US patent system. I can well imagine the effort required to persuade the many stakeholders and decision-makers to support a reform of this magnitude.

The shift from the first-to-invent to the first-inventor-to-file principle brings the US closer to the rest of the world, opening up new prospects for international harmonisation of the patent system. To facilitate the discussions about this long-standing project, David was very active in the work of the Tegernsee Group, which recently completed an expert fact-finding exercise on some questions of substantive patent law.

Second, David was and is a pragmatist – a quality I particularly appreciated when more technical issues were being addressed at the IP5 or Trilateral levels. One of the most remarkable projects in which David was involved is the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), created in just two years on the basis of ECLA with input from the USPTO. The CPC, co-managed by the USPTO and the EPO, is already a reality. In our discussions on technical issues, the emphasis was always on making life easier for our users. This has been reflected in the delivery of specific tools, such as the CCD, a Trilateral project which has been highly praised by the business community; in a similar perspective, the IP5 Offices are now working on the ambitious Global Dossier initiative.

David Kappos was a consistently reliable and committed partner during his time as head of the USPTO, and I wish him every success in his new career. The EPO will continue to work together with its USTPO colleagues to seek solutions to the global challenges of the patent system.

Benoît Battistelli
President