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1 September 2013Patents

The finer details: interview with Benoît Battistelli

Since July 2010, Benoît Battistelli has led the European Patent Office (EPO). In recent months, much of his focus has been on the soon-to-be implemented unitary patent (UP), which his organisation will grant.

The proposals, initially agreed at the end of last year, were described by Battistelli at the time as a “simple solution for innovators”, but as the UP’s official implementation draws nearer, concerns have been raised about the finer details of exactly what it will encompass and who it will benefit.

At the head of these concerns is costs. “First and foremost it is necessary for the UP to be attractive, which means the fees should not to be too high,” says Battistelli.

It is feared that renewal fees, which will be used to run the system, could, as a consequence, be too high. Admitting that the scheme would need to generate enough revenue to cover its own expenses, Battistelli said he was “sensitive” to the cost issue but added that final concrete figures were “some way off”.

“On the one hand, it is important to be attractive compared to the existing scheme with the European patent,” he said, “On the other hand, as the UP concerns only 25 countries, which means that 13 other EPO member states are not involved,  it’s not possible for us to subsidise costs with the general budget of the organisation as it would be a breach of our financial rules and of the principle of equality among member states.

“The EPO is currently gathering all relevant data. We will present them to the participating member states to the UP after the summer break in order to launch the discussions on the level of the fees before the end of the year.”

Among other criticisms of the scheme are fears that, primarily, large multinational corporations will benefit. Non-governmental organisation No Patents on Seeds, a collection of companies and charities concerned about the filing of patents in the biotechnology sphere, has claimed that multinational companies would use the system as a ‘one-stop shop’ towards gaining a monopoly in Europe, leaving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) behind.

But Battistelli was quick to reject that theory. “People focus too much on the purely financial aspects. They forget the administrative burden, which is to manage 10, 15 or 20 different national patents.

“By simplifying the protection with a single title for a large geographical area, and only one interlocutor—namely the EPO—you also simplify administrative tasks to a certain extent. I am convinced that SMEs and public research centres and laboratories will benefit. They are in the same situation, they don’t have large means and are in high need of good protection.”

“We have multiplied contacts inside and outside Europe with many different user associations in recent months. The interest expressed in the unitary patent is high," he said, "but in the end, it will be up to them to decide whether they will consider this new tool or just use the classical European patent to protect their inventions in Europe".

Ahead of the UP’s launch, a key concern at the EPO is to improve the quality of all patents it issues

“To deliver top quality patents is a first priority for the EPO and represents a major reason why so many undertakings around the world are requesting our services. Improving quality is a continuous process which requires a wide range of actions concerning technical means and human resources. For example, our newcomers will have to follow a three-year training programme before they can be considered as fully qualified examiners.

"Moreover, each of our examining divisions which take the decisions on patent applications are composed of three qualified members. These measures are only few examples of the huge - and I think unique in the world - investment that the EPO realises each year to ensure that criteria for patentability are implemented in very rigorous manner”.

This year an independent body - the Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) - published some recommendations to improve the way patent offices administer patents, including improving the opposition and re-examination process once a patent has been granted.

“The ESAB is an autonomous and independent body we have created to thoroughly analyse issues which they choose. Its views do not necessarily mirror those of the EPO, but we shall certainly take account of the board’s conclusions in our own deliberations on policy and future projects.

"In spite of the fact that the EPO is praised for its quality by the users, we are of course conscious that the process can be improved and rendered more user-friendly, in particular in facilitating the communication or accelerating the process. Our last measures, like an easy video-conference access, have already produced very positive results".

By simplifying the protection with a single protection title for a geographically large area, and only one interlocutor - namely the EPO - you also simplify administrative tasks.

With 38 member states, the EPO is responsible for applications from a range of countries and cultures. Some believe the continent’s diversity should be reflected in the EPO’s staffing.

“I am quite aware of the sensitivity of this issue, which exists not only at the EPO. However, as a technical organisation delivering services to all sectors of the industry, our primary concern is to hire the best qualified staff. This important principle is widely supported by the Administrative Council of the EPO where all our member states are represented with an equal weight according to the ‘one country, one vote’ rule we applied,” he says.

“There are already 32 different nationalities represented at the EPO, which constitutes a very good record. Between two candidates with the same level of qualification, we would prefer to pick the one having the nationality which is less represented at the office. Since I am the president of this office, I have taken  particular care to ensure that the European diversity is appropriately reflected in our policy and priorities," he adds.

"Instead of wasting time in endless theoretical discussions around a quotas policy for example, I have favoured concrete measures with a direct effect: the main hurdle for candidates being the language qualification, the EPO has signed three agreements early this year with major institutions - British Council, Goethe Institute, Institut Français - to define a dedicated language training programme to improve the knowledge of our three official languages - English, German and French - in our member states with different national languages. Nowadays, linguistic courses supported by the EPO are already offered in many of those countries".

In 2010 when Battistelli was first elected as president, he told WIPR he was keen to improve relations between the member states, the organisation itself and the Administrative Council. “I think we have considerably progressed on that level—relations between EPO and member states are excellent,” he says. “We have developed a specific ‘co-operation roadmap’ which is a much more flexible, user-driven and less bureaucratic way of communicating.

"We now have a yearly meeting where we evaluate the results of our cooperation with member states, and the feedback we received from the last meeting, in Reykjavik,Iceland, was extremely positive.”

Aside from issues surrounding Europe, Battistelli indicated he was keen to improve the working relationship and communication the EPO has with countries outside of European borders.

“We have progressed a lot from a technical point of view at international level. For instance, we are now sharing our patent search engine, Epoque, recently updated with the very last technological improvements, with more than 40 countries, including China, Brazil, Russia and Australia, as well as European countries."

“We have also developed a patent classification system—cooperative patent classification (CPC)—with the US Patent and Trademark Office, based on the European one with inputs from the US, to harmonise classification systems. It has only started this year but after six months, it has become a world standard as it will be used also by China, South Korea, Brazil and Russia.

"We are also making freely available our patent translate service on our website. It offers translation of patents from and into English with 21 other languages, including Chinese and Japanese. The aim is to reach 32 languages by the end of 2014. These recent and positive outcomes for the users of the patent system are due the very fruitful cooperation the EPO enjoys and develops with many partners worldwide".

Despite describing his first three years as enjoyable, Battistelli remains coy on his future.
“I was elected for five years and have already completed three. Legally it is possible for me to go another term but this question will come in 2014 and not before,” he says.

“Going forward I would like the EPO to continue to be the first office in the world in terms of quality, and to develop solid foundations for its future including streamlined legal processes, highly qualified and highly motivated staff. I am concentrating on fulfilling this mandate and not the next one.”

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