EPO meets with AIPLA
The European Patent Office (EPO) recently met with the European Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) at the EPO’s headquarters in Munich. Steve Rowan, EPO Vice-President Patent Granting Process, led the meeting that was attended by AIPLA representatives and EPO experts.
In his opening address, Steve Rowan reflected on 2023, a significant year as the European Patent Convention celebrated its 50th anniversary and the Unitary Patent was successfully launched. He outlined the EPO’s new Strategic Plan (SP2028) with its focus on sustainability, quality and digital transformation. The Vice-President emphasised the importance of user engagement, noting not only the range of meetings over the past year, but the value placed on such engagement. In addition, he underlined that high quality patents result from a partnership.
The meeting enabled the EPO to provide updates and discuss a range of topics. These included Unitary Patent statistics, the parallel prosecution of patent applications filed at both the EPO and USPTO and substantive patent law harmonisation. In addition, the EPO’s investment in quality was highlighted, covering training and recruitment efforts, the publicly available Quality Action Plan and KPIs, and the soon-to-be-published Quality Report.
The AIPLA delegation provided positive feedback on the EPO’s expanding range of digital services, the level of direct engagement demonstrated by the EPO and its responsiveness to user feedback.
After the meeting, Patrick Coyne, former AIPLA President, took the time to answer some questions during an interview with the EPO.
You can watch the interview with Mr Coyne and find out how these regular meetings strengthen the relationships between the EPO and its partners and foster collaboration.
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