Improving patent procedures globally: how the European patent system could break the deadlock
On March 1, 2018, the validation agreement between the European Patent Office (EPO) and Cambodia will enter into force. From then on, any European patent application filed on or after that date will be eligible to designate the country for the purpose of validating the European patent, if granted.
This comes a few years after Cambodia granted the first patent (2015)—as a result of an enhanced cooperation with Singapore’s Intellectual Property Office (IPOS)—and joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT, effective since December 8, 2016). The validation agreement will not apply to pharmaceutical products, as Cambodia currently applies the World Trade Organization’s waiver until 2033.
To date, validation agreements entered into force in Morocco (01.03.2015), Moldova (01.11.2015) and Tunisia (01.12.2017). Negotiations are ongoing with Angola, Brunei Darussalam, Georgia, Laos, and the African Organisation for Intellectual Property (OAPI).
The below analysis provides a quick snapshot of how the validation system can be used by European patent applicants—complementarily to other existing harmonisation and work-sharing mechanisms such as the Global Dossier and Patent Prosecution Highway (view detailed analysis here)—as a way to streamline filing processes globally and generate efficiency gains in terms of predictability, time and procedural costs.
A fast-track extension of territorial scope and legal effects
One major challenge in global patenting is to overcome administrative impediments and redundancy that arise at the filing stage of patent applications and throughout the prosecution.
Filing and prosecution costs—mainly resulting from translations, authentication of documents (eg, legalisation and notarisation) and hourly rates of patent attorneys—tend to be prohibitive.
Many industries remain under constant pressure to obtain the broadest scope of patent protection and build the strongest portfolio in a timely manner and at the lowest costs.
Patent offices continue to be seen—rightly or wrongly—as being either too slow or not well suited to certain industrial sectors subject to short innovation cycles. Examiners have to cope with the emergence of multidisciplinary and potentially disruptive technologies.
