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President's Activities Report SUBMITTED BY CA/44/19 Orig.: en Munich, 08.03.2019 SUBJECT: President's activities report SUBMITTED BY: President of the European Patent Office ADDRESSEES: Administrative Council (for information) CA/44/19 e 2018-5940 - I - TABLE OF CONTENTS Subject Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. PERFORMANCE OF THE PATENT GRANTING PROCESS 2 A. WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION 2 a) Search, examination and opposition 7 b) Early Certainty timeliness 8 B. QUALITY 9 a) User satisfaction 10 b) Quality indicators 11 c) Quality action plans 12 d) Quality management system 14 e) Asian documentation 18 f) Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) 18 g) Patent procedures management documented by QMS 21 h) Streamlining practices and procedures 21 C. RELATIONS WITH USERS 26 a) User support 27 b) User events 27 c) Praktika Extern 2018 28 d) Pan-European Seal Programme 29 e) User feedback 30 f) Communication with applicants 31 III. SOCIAL MATTERS 32 A. SOCIAL DIALOGUE 32 a) Outcomes of discussions with social partners 32 b) Continuous dialogue with staff 33 c) Internal justice system 33 B. RECRUITMENT AND WORKFORCE PLANNING 35 IV. IT AND AUTOMATION PROJECTS 37 A. ITR DELIVERIES FOR THE PGP AND KMS 37 a) Delivering the digital transformation agenda 37 b) Improvements to current tools 38 CA/44/19 e 2018-5940 - II - B. DELIVERIES FOR OTHER AREAS 38 C. IT AUDIT 39 V. BUILDINGS 39 A. NEW MAIN THE HAGUE 39 B. OTHER BUILDING PROJECTS 40 VI. EPN 41 A. CO-OPERATION WITH MEMBER STATES 41 B. EUROPEAN PATENT ACADEMY 42 C. CO-OPERATION WITH EUIPO 43 D. REPRESENTATION BEFORE THE EPO 43 E. EUROPEAN PATENT REGISTER 44 F. PATENT INFORMATION 45 G. EPO-CPVO CO-OPERATION 46 VII. EPO AS GLOBAL PLAYER 46 A. BILATERAL RELATIONS 46 B. IP5 CO-OPERATION 48 C. STRENGTHENING THE PCT 49 D. SUBSTANTIVE PATENT LAW HARMONISATION 51 VIII. UNITARY PATENT/UNIFIED PATENT COURT 51 IX. EPO AND THE SOCIETY 52 A. EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 52 B. NEW MAIN BUILDING INAUGURATION 53 C. REPORT ON PATENTS AND SELF DRIVING VEHICLES 53 D. SENSITIVE CASES IN PHARMA AND BIOTECHNOLOGY 54 X. RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLICATION 54 CA/44/19 e 2018-5940 I. INTRODUCTION To improve transparency and enhance the reporting of Office activities to the Council, a comprehensive overview of the previous year is presented to each March meeting of the Council. This report offers a comprehensive account of activities in 2018. The key elements of the report can be summarised as followed: Preparation of the EPO Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2023: the SP2023 will cover the patent granting process, the Office's quality policy, its working environment, European and international co-operation, and many other areas. Transparency and commitment will feature highly. A comprehensive consultation process was launched in Q4 2018 to engage with various stakeholders and lay a solid foundation for SP 2023. The EPO member states, many partner IP offices worldwide, other international organisations like the WIPO, EU Commission, EUIPO, and several user associations were invited to provide input. Internally, the Office started preparing a general staff survey scheduled for Q1 2019.The President also met several staff members in one-to-one meetings (over 700 by the end of December 2018). Several meetings also took place between the President, the management, staff representatives and the two trade unions, SUEPO and FFPE. Finally, an open online consultation primarily targeting the public and society at large will be launched in January 2019. In the areas of IT and Finance that are particularly crucial to the efficiency and sustainability of the Office, external consultants were commissioned to produce an audit report and study that will provide fact-based input for internal debates. Patent granting process: The number of patent applications continued to increase during the first seven months of 2018 (174 317; +4.6% over 2017), hitting an all-time high. The production of searches, examinations and oppositions increased by 3.9% for the same period. This helped to further improve timeliness and reduce backlogs (-7.8%). CA/44/19 e 1/54 2018-5940 Social dialogue: there was a special focus on meeting staff, staff representatives and trade unionists, creating opportunities to address many topics. Additional information on the outcomes of selected internal management committees was also published internally to offer deeper insights into reasons for the Office's actions and projects. Buildings: After the successful official inauguration of the New Main building in The Hague at the end of June 2018, in the presence of the King of the Netherlands, a special event was organised for EPO staff in early September to mark the start of the move into the new building, which continued until the end of October. The Office also conducted an evaluation of wear and tear in the buildings at its other sites to assess future refurbishment requirements. The first general orientations presented by the Office were approved by the Council in December 2018. IT: The Office continued to improve its knowledge management tools, specifically with enriched databases and new functionalities. A successful adaptation to the new IT revolution based on artificial intelligence is paramount to the future efficiency of the Office. Although there were some solid achievements in 2018, the plan to create a fully-digitalised back office faced significant delay and delivery issues. An audit report by an external consultant to be finalised in January 2019 will help us to decide the best way forward. II. PERFORMANCE OF THE PATENT GRANTING PROCESS A. WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION In 2018, 174 317 European patent applications (European direct applications filed in 2018 and PCT applications entering the European regional phase in 2018) were recorded. This represents a 4.6% increase over the corresponding figure for 2017. Growth in Euro-direct applications was stronger than expected (71 996; +5.6% vs 2017). CA/44/19 e 2/54 2018-5940 EPO Applications Budget 169 000 180 000 165 600 160 000 159 300 160 000 140 000 120 000 100 000 166 594 174 317 80 000 (+4.6%) 60 000 40 000 20 000 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 While non-divisional applications grew by 3.5%, divisional applications increased by 21% versus 2017. Divisional applications accounted for 29% of growth in applications in 2018. The increase in divisional applications has been particularly marked since 2015: +4.6% 174 317 160 211 166 594 153 035 159 087 + 3.5% + 21% 4.3% 4.6% 5.7% 6.4% 7.4% 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 CA/44/19 e 3/54 2018-5940 In 2018, the total incoming search, examination and opposition workload (404 874) increased by 3.7% compared to 2017. More specifically, the Office received 237 663 search requests (+4.2%), as well as 167 211 requests for European examination/opposition (+3.7%). Procedure Received in 2018 Compared to actual Compared to 2017 budget 2018 Search 237 663 +4.2% +1.2% Exam/Oppo 167 211 +2.9% +3.7% Total 404 874 +3.7% +1.0% Provisionally and for the first eleven months of 2018, the share of the EPO as ISA was 32.8% (33.4%; -1.8% in 2017) despite an increase in volume (74 087; +2.3%). This was mostly due to the growing market share of the China National Intellectual Property Administration as a PCT authority. In 2018, the examiners' output reached 430 418 search, examination and opposition products, marking a 3.9% increase versus 2017. While the number of full-time equivalent staff (FTEs) has remained stable since 2015, the number of products produced by each FTE is rising, which is a clear marker of the Office's improved efficiency. Paid man years Products per FTE (FTE) 7 000 70 67.0 6 900 68 64.5 66 6 800 64 61.9 6 700 62 6 600 60 56.5 58 6 500 56 6 400 6 472 6 455 54 6 429 6 419 6 420 6 436 6 401 6 300 52 50 6 200 49.8 48 48.4 49.0 6 100 46 6 000 44 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Paid man years, FTE SEO Products / FTE CA/44/19 e 4/54 2018-5940 Published patents In 2018 the EPO published 127 625 European patents, which is 20.8% more than in 2017. EPO Published Patents Budget 105 000 130 000 120 000 105 635 110 000 95 940 100 000 90 000 80 000 68 421 70 000 60 000 127 625 50 000 105 635 (+20.8%) 40 000 30 000 20 000 10 000 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 Direct grants In 2018, the share of direct grants, or those with no intermediary examination communication before grant, was lower than in 2017 (45% versus 48%) CA/44/19 e 5/54 2018-5940 Time to patent publication The time elapsed is measured from the date of entry into the European grant procedure up until the publication date of the patent. For the European direct application this is the date of receipt; while for the Euro-PCT application, it represents the date of entry into the regional phase. The time elapsed measures the duration of the European grant procedure completed during each reporting period. The increase in the time to publication up to 2016 reflects the fact that, as of 2015, the EPO started dealing with older files in its examination stock. CA/44/19 e 6/54 2018-5940 General EPO Statistics 01 February 2019 Difference 2017 2018 2018/2017 in % 1 Total European patent applications – December 166 594 174 317 4.6% 2a Direct European applications – December 68 159 71 996 5.6% 2b PCT applications entering the regional phase – December 98 435 102 321 3.9% 3 Searches carried out (Examiner products) – December 247 503 233 126 -5.8% - of which European + supplementary + other 163 751 148 902 -9.1% - of which International PCT searches carried out 83 752 84 224 0.6% 4 European examinations carried out (Examiner products) – December 153 858 185 364 20.5% 5 International preliminary examinations carried out (Examiner products) – December 8 836 7 867 -11.0% 6 Oppositions (Examiner products) – December 4 072 4 061 -0.3% 7 Total Examiner Products DG 1 – December 414 269 430 418 3.9% 8 SEO Time (Search, Examination, Opposition in '000 days) – December 768.2 780.8 1.6% 9 Patents published – December 105 635 127 625 20.8% 10 Pending EPO SEO workload expressed in months of output – December 13.9 12.0 -13.4% All production figures (items 3 to 7) are based on counts of examiner products.
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