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CA/44/15 Orig.: En Munich, 06.03.2015 CA/44/15 Orig.: en Munich, 06.03.2015 SUBJECT: President’s activities report SUBMITTED BY: President of the European Patent Office ADDRESSEES: Administrative Council (for information) CA/44/15 e LT 0289/150510001 - I - TABLE OF CONTENTS Subject Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. PERFORMANCE 1 A. DG 1 WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION 1 B. EFFICIENCY AND TIMELINESS 2 a) Search, examination and opposition 2 b) Publications 3 III. MEASURES TAKEN IN DG1 IN 2014 TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE 4 A. EXAMINER RECRUITMENT IN 2014 4 B. "ESPRIT DE SERVICE" 5 a) "VICO for Oral Proceedings" 5 b) New WiFi for oral proceedings 5 c) The First-Line Customer Service 5 d) Praktika Extern 5 C. CAREER PATH AND REORGANISATION 6 a) Team Manager pilot and Senior Expert Examiners 6 b) Director rotation 7 c) DG 1 Quality Action Plan and individual quality objectives 7 d) CASE – Conformity Assurance for Search & Examination 8 e) Reorganisation and activities of clusters in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) area 8 f) Areas of Competence (AoC) 9 D. PRIOR-ART DOCUMENTATION 9 E. EARLY CERTAINTY FROM SEARCH (ECFS) 9 F. PROCEDURES 10 a) PCT Direct 10 CA/44/15 e LT 0289/150510001 - II - b) PCT applications with business method-type claims originating from the US 11 c) Clarification of the concept of "added subject-matter" – Article 123(2) EPC 11 d) More flexibility in case of non-unity – new Rule 164 EPC 11 e) Earlier publication of Guidelines for Examination 12 G. UTILISATION IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT (UIP) 12 IV. BOARDS OF APPEAL 12 A. PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTION 12 B. REFERRALS AND PETITIONS FOR REVIEW 13 V. INTERACTION WITH STAKEHOLDERS 15 VI. IT ROADMAP (ITR) 16 A. DELIVERIES FOR EXAMINERS 16 B. EPOQUE 16 C. DELIVERIES FOR EXTERNAL USERS 17 D. PLAN FOR JOINT WORK PACKAGE 18 VII. OTHER DEVELOPMENTs IN AUTOMATION 18 A. ALIGNMENT TO INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES 18 B. IT SECURITY 19 VIII. QUALITY 21 IX. BUILDINGS, FACILITY MANAGEMENT AND PROCUREMENT 23 A. PROJECT NEW MAIN BUILDING, THE HAGUE 23 B. OTHER BUILDING PROJECTS 23 C. CENTRAL PROCUREMENT 24 X. HUMAN RESOURCES 24 A. NEW CAREER AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 24 B. SALARY ADJUSTMENT METHOD 26 CA/44/15 e LT 0289/150510001 - III - C. HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 27 a) Sick leave 27 b) Part-time home working 28 D. SOCIAL DIALOGUE 28 E. DISPUTE RESOLUTION 29 a) Internal appeals 29 b) Litigation 30 c) Interpersonal disputes and harassment prevention 31 F. RECRUITMENT 31 XI. EUROPEAN PATENT NETWORK 31 A. CO-OPERATION WITH MEMBER STATES 31 B. EUROPEAN PATENT ACADEMY 33 C. REPRESENTATION BEFORE THE EPO 34 D. EUROPEAN PATENT REGISTER 35 E. PATENT INFORMATION 35 XII. EPO AS A GLOBAL PLAYER 36 A. BILATERAL RELATIONS 36 B. IP5 39 a) IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (IP5 PPH) pilot 39 b) IP5 Patent Harmonisation Experts Panel (PHEP) 40 c) IP5 Statistics Report 2013 41 d) IP5 Quality Management meeting 41 e) Exchange of information in unpublished phase 41 f) Global Dossier Taskforce (GDTF) meeting 41 C. COOPERATIVE PATENT CLASSIFICATION 42 D. TRILATERAL CO-OPERATION 42 E. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS 43 F. STRENGTHENING THE PCT 43 CA/44/15 e LT 0289/150510001 - IV - G. SUBSTANTIVE PATENT LAW HARMONISATION 45 XIII. UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION/UNIFIED PATENT COURT 46 A. UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION (UPP) 46 B. UNIFIED PATENT COURT 47 XIV. THE EPO AND SOCIETY 47 A. THE EPO IN THE MEDIA 47 a) Annual report 2013 47 b) European Inventor Award 48 B. EPO WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA 49 C. CLIMATE CHANGE, GREEN TECHNOLOGIES AND STANDARDS 49 D. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PATENTS 50 XV. CONCLUDING REMARKS 51 XVI. RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLICATION 52 CA/44/15 e LT 0289/150510001 I. INTRODUCTION 1. In order to ensure improved transparency and enhance reporting of Office activities to the Council, a comprehensive overview of the year just passed is presented to each March meeting of the Council. This present report thus sets out a comprehensive account of activities in 2014. II. PERFORMANCE A. DG 1 WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION 2. The year 2014 saw a further increase in patent filings, driven by the continuing upward trend in the number of PCT international applications filed. By the end of November 2014, about 245 820 patent filings had been recorded. This represents a temporary 3.0% increase over the corresponding figure for 2013. The final end- of-year figures for 2014 should be slightly above 274 000 filings, a 3.1% increase over 2013. CA/44/15 e 1/52 LT 0289/150510001 3. The number of requests for a European patent (European direct applications filed in 2014 and PCT applications entering the European regional phase in 2014) amounted to 152 300 applications, 2.9% above the corresponding figure for 2013. B. EFFICIENCY AND TIMELINESS a) Search, examination and opposition 4. In 2014, the Office received 214 838 search requests (+2.1%) as well as 135 733 requests for European examination (+3.2%). This represents an increase of 2.5% in the workload compared to 2013. After several years of decrease, the EPO share of ISA work increased slightly in 2014, to 38.3% (80 725 search reports in 2014, compared to 77 450 in 2013). This increase is even stronger for the IPER work (55.7% of the examination reports, compared to 49.7% in 2013) but with a smaller volume (7 661 vs. 7 307). The examiners' output reached 320 080 search, examination and opposition products in 2014, the highest ever and 1.4% above the 2013 volume. 5. The extended search report was issued on average after 9.1 months (2013: 9.2). The first action during the examination phase was issued on average after 26.0 months (2013: 26.9). The final decision (publication or final abandonment) took on average 42.2 months (2013: 40.6). Patents were published on average 42.3 months after the start of the European procedure (2013: 43.3). 6. The goal of the office is to keep its overall staff complement constant while increasing its production in ways sufficient to manage the workload. The figure below outlines the success of this strategy, in that the number of Full Time Equivalent employees and the weight of the salary bill are decreasing while the number of products produced by each FTE is increasing, a clear sign of the increased efficiency of the Office. CA/44/15 e 2/52 LT 0289/150510001 b) Publications 7. In 2014, the EPO published 64 613 European patents, which is 3% less than in 2013. Timeliness up to grant continues to improve: (1) patents were published on average 42.3 months after the start of the European procedure (2013: 43.3); (2) of the granted patents, slightly more than 33% (+0.5%) were published within 36 months. CA/44/15 e 3/52 LT 0289/150510001 8. Several factors account for the observed trends. • An increase in incoming high-priority search workload. • An increased applicant drop-out rate after notification of the intention to grant. • In past years process optimisations have led to one-off gains which are no longer measured. 9. In June 2014 the Office took targeted measures in order both to increase the production of grants and to speed up the administrative processes leading to publication. III. MEASURES TAKEN IN DG1 IN 2014 TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE A. EXAMINER RECRUITMENT IN 2014 10. The recruitment of DG 1 examiners in 2014 was very successful. A total of 191 new examiners started in 2014 (situation on 31 December 2014), representing 23 different European nationalities. Almost 40% of the newcomers will have a three-year contract allowing them to acquire the three official EPO languages. The CA/44/15 e 4/52 LT 0289/150510001 total headcount for DG 1 on 31 December 2014 was 4 225 examiners. For 2015, the total headcount at the end of the year for DG 1 is scheduled to be 4 296 examiners. Taking planned departures into account as well, this results in a recruitment target in 2015 of 149 new examiners for DG 1. B. "ESPRIT DE SERVICE" a) "VICO for Oral Proceedings" 11. Since 1998 the EPO has allowed oral proceedings to be conducted by video conference. Since the introduction of a new technical solution in May 2012 this service is used more and more. For the year 2014, 654 oral proceedings by VICO were scheduled. This represents an increase of 16% compared to 2013 and is a very positive trend, as it shows that not only applicants and representatives but also examiners are getting more and more used to this service, leading to a more efficient way of working overall. In order to further improve the reliability of this service, a connection test with the facilities of the EPO is offered to applicants in advance of oral proceedings. More systematic use of this testing facility is envisaged for applicants requesting oral proceedings by VICO for the first time. b) New WiFi for oral proceedings 12. In the public area of all EPO buildings where oral proceedings take place, an EPO WiFi network dedicated to oral proceedings has been deployed. An external user can obtain a username or password at the EPO reception desk. The WiFi network allows services such as VPN to be used to connect to remote networks, which will be very helpful for parties attending oral proceedings. c) The First-Line Customer Service 13. In line with the Office’s service orientation, First-Line Customer Service for DG 1 has been operational since November 2012 for all examiners at the three sites Munich, The Hague and Berlin, including those working part-time from home.
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