EPO technology platforms

The making of technology platforms and pipelines

We at the European Patent Office have a long history of making our worldwide patent data accessible and useful for researchers, inventors and decision-makers. Recent examples of this are dedicated publications such as our EPO patent insight reports and Chief Economist economic studies. These publications provide valuable insights into trends and evidence-based research and analyses related to environmentally-friendly technologies, health matters and much more.  

Since 2020, we have also been making technology platforms available, providing user-friendly access to information on important technical fields and emerging technologies. On these platforms, you can access numerous search strategies for the technologies in question. When you select an individual topic, the underlying search queries are executed in our databases of worldwide patent data, and the results are presented in Espacenet, which we make available to users free of charge. For a comprehensive overview of these platforms, please visit our new page on technology platforms. 

The Espacenet interface allows you to access and filter the results and to tailor your searches. 

There are currently four technology platforms: Fighting coronavirus, Clean energy technologies, Firefighting technologies and Technologies combatting cancer. They have been put together, and checked for compliance with our high quality standards, by dozens of experts. Organised by our recently established Observatory on Patents and Technology, EPO examiners work closely with inhouse patent intelligence experts and economists to establish the basis and background information for the platforms. Input is also incorporated from specialists at national patent offices, who actively contribute to preparing the search strategies and Espacenet search queries and to selecting the platform content. 

While the quality of the search strategies and the webpage content are key to making the information on the platforms reliable, more work is needed to make the platforms practical and useful for target users. To this end, we are focusing on enhancing communication aspects such as the design of the landing pages and the structure of the platforms. The goal is to ensure that users can find the information they need in a few simple steps. 

All the efforts to create and optimise the platforms have already paid off: since their launch, our technology platforms have been visited by tens of thousands of users on all continents. 

Keywords: patent insight reports, technology platforms