EPO President meets with IP Australia Director General

From left to right: EPO President António Campinos and IP Australia Director General Michael Schwager with their respective delegations

As long-standing partners, the European Patent Office (EPO) and IP Australia came together to explore global IP challenges and deepen their strategic co-operation.

On 7 July, EPO President António Campinos welcomed a delegation from IP Australia, led by Director General Michael Schwager, to the EPO headquarters in Munich.

The high-level meeting reaffirmed the strong partnership between the two Offices and included an exchange on current global challenges in the IP landscape. Discussions focused on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the patent granting process and a future pilot in which Australian users would be given the choice to select the EPO as International Searching Authority (ISA).

Both Offices acknowledged the importance of strengthening the global patent system in response to geopolitical developments. Building on the EPO’s 2023 mission to Australia and the President’s contribution to the Francis Gurry Lecture Series, both the EPO and IP Australia also reiterated their commitment to fostering a patent system that supports societal progress and innovation. To this end, the heads of office expressed their shared interest in deepening collaboration through joint initiatives facilitated by the EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology and IP Australia’s Office of the Chief Economist.

Supporting smaller enterprises

Both Offices shared updates on dedicated outreach initiatives targeting SMEs as well as universities and reaffirmed their commitment to facilitating access to the patent system for smaller enterprises and individual applicants. It was noted that the Unitary Patent system, now in its second year, is helping achieve this goal: over one-third of requests from European applicants come from SMEs, and 60% of their granted patents are converted into Unitary Patents. Australian applicants are also embracing the system and have filed more than 500 requests for unitary effect to date. This translates into an uptake rate of 47.2% for 2025 alone.

Promoting transparency in the IP system

Following the recent adoption of the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, both offices acknowledged the importance of ensuring adequate protections for these areas. The EPO contributes to this goal by maintaining the world’s largest prior art collection, including 445 000 traditional knowledge documents and 14 872 documents from the Community Plant Variety Office. This ensures that examiners can provide comprehensive and high-quality search reports.

Work is already underway on the next biennial work plan, which will mark 20 years of close co-operation between the EPO and IP Australia, laying the foundation for continued collaboration in the years ahead.