shutterstock-99935651
7 June 2016PatentsGordon Wright

CIPA: Battling the bulge at the EPO

The 2015 Annual Report of the European Patent Office (EPO), published on March 3, 2016, shows that the number of European patent applications rose to a record 160,000 in 2015, up by 4.8% on the 152,000 filed the previous year.

This increase was driven mainly by companies from the US (up 16.4%) and China (up 22.2%). The volume of applications from the 38 EPO member states increased only slightly to 76,000 (up 0.7%), but still accounted for the largest share of applications by region of origin (47%, 1.9% down on the previous year).

The EPO president, Benoît Battistelli, is clearly proud of these record figures.

“The remarkable growth in patent applications at the EPO proves that Europe continues to be a hub for innovators from all over the world, and an attractive technology market,” he said in an EPO press release.

“It reflects the interest of businesses and inventors in opting for high-quality patent protection for the European market.”

However, it remains to be seen whether Battistelli can deliver that patent protection in a timely manner. According to the 2015 report, the EPO has taken significant steps in the past few years to modernise its internal structures and increase efficiency, while further improving its patent quality. It claims that the reforms are paying off: the number of products (such as searches and examinations) delivered by EPO patent examiners grew by 14% in 2015 to 365,000.

However, in 2015 the number of examiners was increased by only six, to 4,227, and the overall staff numbers decreased (by 77). At the same time, the EPO published more than 68,000 granted patents, an increase of nearly 6% over 2014, another record. The average time to grant in 2015 increased slightly from 25.5 months in 2014 to 26.1 months.

The problem of pendency

The 2015 report does not give a figure for the current number of pending applications, but figures provided by the EPO to the IP5, a forum of the five largest IP offices—the EPO, the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Japan Patent Office and China’s State Intellectual Property Office—show that the EPO is developing a worrying bulge in pending applications.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk