Profile
The European Patent Office （EPO）， the second-largest intergovernmental institution in Europe, delivers high quality patents for technical inventions in up to 40 European countries on the basis of a single patent application.
With a highly trained examiner workforce of well over 4,000 engineers and scientists, the EPO delivers high quality patents that stand out for their legal certainty, and which provide a reliable basis for decisions of inventors and companies around the world.
Growing demand for patents
Demand for the EPO's services is rising steadily with 274,000 patent filings in 2014, and 40% of world-wide international searches and more than half of all international preliminary examinations under the PCT being performed by the EPO.
The growing demand for patents presents the EPO with particular procedural and administrative challenges. In response to these challenges, the EPO has put an even stronger focus on quality, efficiency and timeliness.
Two hallmarks of our quality policy stood out in 2014: the EPO obtained ISO 9001 certification for its entire patent granting process covering search and examination, opposition, limitation and revocation—an unmistakable, independent vote of confidence in our services for the rapidly evolving European patent system.
Harmonised services for users acting globally
Working closely with our partner patent offices worldwide, the EPO launched several initiatives in 2014 to help users manage their applications more effectively and thus save time and money by providing a single point of access to information on how their applications are progressing at different patent offices.
As part of our co-operation in the grouping of the five largest IP offices in the world （known as the “IP5”）， the EPO and SIPO introduced a new service in 2014 called the Global Dossier. It provides a free online file inspection （also known as a “file wrapper”） service that allows users to access SIPO's publicly available documents directly on the EPO website— on both the European Patent Register and Espacenet. In April 2015, we extended the EPO’s Global Dossier service to include data from the Japan Patent Office and the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office is expected to be added soon. This service aims to simplify access to information both for applicants and the public, and to enhance the transparency of the patent system.
Improvement of the European patent system draws near
The unitary patent will simplify procedures and lower costs for patent owners, while increasing legal certainty thanks to the introduction of a Unified Patent Court. Since the 25 participating EU member states reached political agreement in late 2012, steady progress has been made. In 2014 Europe moved closer to this much-awaited reform.
（编辑：刘珊）
（中国知识产权报独家稿件，未经授权不得转载。）