​​EPO shares its initiatives for ensuring patent quality

​​The European Patent Office (EPO) has shared its latest patent quality initiatives at an expert discussion held in Basel on 31 October by the Licensing Executives Society Switzerland (LES Switzerland).​

The event attracted patent professionals from private practice and in-house IP teams. Lively and insightful exchanges took place on how to ensure patent quality in Europe, which everyone agreed is the joint responsibility of both users of the patent system and Europe’s patent offices.

Two senior EPO managers shared the Office’s latest initiatives to ensure patent quality. In addition to the EPO’s annual quality report, this year has seen the publication for the first time of the EPO’s annual Quality Action Plan, together with the launch of a regularly updated Quality dashboard. For full transparency, the Quality dashboard enables everyone to follow the progress we make towards achieving our key performance indicators.

Deepening user consultation 

The event took place little more than a week after this year’s Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAPs) at the EPO. The EPO speakers explained how European patent attorneys and EPO experts jointly assessed the quality of selected cases at different stages of the patent granting process, including refusals for the first time. They also underlined that the SQAPs are one of several EPO channels that contribute to deepening user consultation globally.

Updates on leveraging AI for improved quality and on the Unitary Patent 

Meanwhile, the EPO is continuing to leverage AI for improved quality in classification, file allocation and search. An update was also provided on the latest developments in the patent granting process, as well as on the Unitary Patent, with over 40 000 requests for unitary effect having been received to date.