EPO Reports Record Volume Of Patents, Seeks To Assure Quality

The European Patent Office today issued statistics which it claimed show the continued ascendance of Europe as a premier destination for patenting, not only from European countries. The statistics focus strongly on the increased volume of patents filed and granted, which it argued is a result of the office’s focus on “efficiency and quality” and a boost to innovation.

“The growing demand for European patents confirms Europe’s attractiveness as a leading technology market,” EPO President Benoît Battistelli was quoted as saying. “European companies, too, filed for more patents than ever before – evidence of their strength in innovation, and of their confidence in our services. The EPO has successfully responded to the sustained demand with efficiency measures that have increased production, productivity, and timeliness. At the same time we have enhanced the quality of our products and services, and continued to reduce the backlog of pending work. The EPO’s staff should be commended for their outstanding efforts in 2017, which led to the Office’s best results ever.”

The press release is available here.

The European Patent Office is headquartered in Munich and represents 38 European countries. Battistelli said it will also complete a new state-of-the-art office building in The Hague, Netherlands this year. Through “validation agreements” other countries are recognising the European patent. With the recent addition of Tunisia and Cambodia, the EPO-granted patent can now provide protection in 44 countries, it said.

“Applications originating from the EPO’s 38 member states grew by 2.8% in 2017 and accounted for 47% of the total,” EPO said.

EPO granted more than 10 percent more patents in 2017 than the previous year. The most active countries were the United States, Germany, Japan, France and China, which knocked Switzerland out to join the top 5 for the first time. Japan and the US saw increases after previous declines. South Korea, meanwhile, saw a drop:

“The five most active countries of origin in 2017 were the US, Germany, Japan, France and China, which posted another double-digit increase (+16.6%) and overtook Switzerland to make it into the top 5 for the first time. Japan, with 3.5% more applications in 2017, was up again after several years of declining figures. Growth was also back from the US (+5.8% in 2017) after a drop in applications in 2016, which had been a knock-on effect of changes in US patent law introduced in 2013. The main exception to the upward trend among the largest patent filing countries was the Republic of Korea, which saw applications drop -8.2% in 2017 after two consecutive years of increase.”

Switzerland was again far above the rest of Europe in terms of patent applications per country population, with 884 applications per million inhabitants, well over double the next in line, the Netherlands (412).

Medical technology remained the top field for patents (more than double pharmaceuticals, for instance), followed by digital communication and computer technology.

Five-Year Review: Astounding Rise in Grants; Patent Oppositions Increasing

An interesting five-year review shows the steady rise of most categories, including a remarkable 37 percent increase in patents granted from 2013 (66,712) to 2017 (105,635). The notable leap (29 percent over the previous year) started in 2016, perhaps with a change in policy at the office. Comparably, European patent examinations also shot up in 2016 (18 percent over previous year) and 2017 (nearly 44 percent increase from 2013 to 2017).

The five-year review includes patent oppositions, which had dipped but last year jumped approximately 20 percent in 2017 over the previous year, after patent grants shot up in 2016. Decisions in oppositions dropped slightly from the previous year, however.

The five-year review also shows that all of the gains in efficiency were made with an almost identical number of staff every year. These efficiency gains result in maintaining costs to users, with fee reductions expected this year, Battistelli said.

Corporate Concentration

The EPO reported that nearly 70 percent of its services were requested by large companies. For the remainder, it lumped small and medium-sized entities, individual inventors and universities and public research institutes in together:

“A breakdown by category of applicants requesting services from the EPO in 2017 shows that while 69% of them were large companies, 31% were smaller entities, comprising SMEs and individual inventors as well as universities and public research institutes.”

Quality, Quantity

The statistics and press release (it was not clear whether there was a complete report available) strongly emphasise the number of patents as the prime measure of success.

“Last year alone, grants increased by over 10%, adding further to the 40% increase of 2016. This means over 100,000 patents – more than ever before – were approved for inventors, helping to support European innovation and the wider economy,” Battistelli said in his “foreword” entitled, “the Year in Review.”

On quality, the statistics offered focus on the quality of services provided by the office, not the quality of the patents granted. For context, it does not appear for example, to assess how past granted patents are holding up to legal challenges as valid or not. And it does not appear to measure any impact higher numbers of patents might have on freedom to operate or to access knowledge and come up with new inventions without fear of infringing others’ patents.

Battistelli did offer an explanation of the claims on quality in his foreword:

“The quality of those patents remains our absolute priority. Quality levels have reached a new high, thanks to a number of measures we put in place last year. These include inter alia an ISO recertification of our Quality Management System, more consultation with our users and greater transparency with the publishing of a detailed quality report, for the first time in an IP office.”

This was bolstered by a reference to a survey on EPO services:

“These advances are being recognised by our users. For the sixth time in a row, a major industry-wide annual survey found that the EPO ranked first among the large IP offices for the quality of its patents and services.”

And he appears to link faster application processing with quality:

“Of course, quality patents also means delivering patents on time. So in 2017 we shortened processing times further. We have already reached our target for delivering a search report with a written opinion on patentability within six months. This gives companies and inventors the clarity they need at an earlier stage, when deciding whether or not to continue their granting procedure.”

The EPO press office did not respond to a question on quality by press time.

 

Image Credits: EPO