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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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. In 2014 a total of 955 tickets were created. Despite the increase in the amount of tickets created for DG 1, the time it takes to close these tickets shows a positive trend. On average 72% of them were closed in the given timeframe, i.e. a reply was provided to the applicant/representative within three working days, and 81% of the tickets were closed within five working days. d) Praktika Extern
14. The Praktika Extern programme, which began in 2009, continues to be a successful means of interaction between examiners, patent attorneys and applicants. It allows a better understanding of the issues and challenges of a different professional environment dealing with intellectual property, as well as allowing direct feedback on the quality and procedural efficiency delivered by the
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EPO. Approximately 95 patent law firms were contacted in 2014 (a total of 105 firms are now listed in the database). A total of 43 examiners were selected, the highest number since the programme began in 2009. All examiners taking part in this year's programme submitted a report reflecting their experience and the knowledge gained during their internships.
15. Positive reactions were received from the majority of attorneys, praising the professionalism and impressive technical knowledge of the examiners they took into their firms. Many attorney's offices and companies which participated in the 2014 programme found the experience to be effective and beneficial to both parties. All of the participating firms expressed their wish that it should continue in 2015. There was a significant increase in attorneys/law firms participating in 2014 compared to previous years.
C. CAREER PATH AND REORGANISATION a) Team Manager pilot and Senior Expert Examiners
16. Managing long-term careers whilst keeping up motivation and performance is one of the challenges the EPO is facing. Within the framework of the HR Roadmap and more notably within the Future Career System, the EPO is defining future career paths in particular for examiners, such as the technical expert career and the managerial career. As part of the managerial career path, it is envisaged to provide more career opportunities for examiners by introducing the role of team manager between examiners and directors.
17. DG 1 is investigating this Team Manager concept with respect to content and expected benefits by means of a pilot which started in April 2014 and will last for a period of twelve months. 33 teams comprising 325 team members with a team size ranging from 6 to 17 examiners are currently involved in the pilot. All clusters are involved. The 33 team managers spend up to 25% of their time on managerial tasks, whilst for the majority of time they focus on their core tasks as examiners.
18. To support the change management needed to ensure implementation of the new performance management system, the team managers are brought up to date with the EPO policy of objective-setting, including individual quality objectives. In order to prepare the team managers for the new performance management system, they will receive exactly the same training as any manager at the EPO. This will allow them to be fully prepared for their role as first-line managers. The intermediate
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assessment of the Team Manager pilot has taken place. Qualitative feedback from line management and team managers is positive. The team managers are respected by their team members, and there is a stronger focus on achieving team objectives due to the close interaction between the team managers and their teams. Harmonisation of procedures, focus on quality and efficient stock management are further assets of the new managerial structure. Team managers are highly motivated by their new position.
19. Next to this managerial career path, the EPO will also offer a new technical expert career path for examiners who see their strength and focus in patent-related and technical matters within DG 1. In 2014, all preparations were made to define the Senior Expert Examiner profile, including roles and responsibilities within DG 1. Senior expert examiners will contribute to the business goals through a very high level of individual performance and through exceptional contributions to the results of the directorate. They will maintain and influence the EPO's core process of patent granting and post-grant activities through proactive knowledge transfer and advice, thereby fostering efficient, high-quality examination procedures whilst contributing to the EPO at large in strategic, political and implementation processes related to these tasks internally and externally. They will provide active support to the management line and will be an exemplary reference for staff. In 2015, the first batch of senior experts will be selected and will take up their duties. b) Director rotation
20. In 2014 the Office adopted a practice of director rotation within DG 1, aimed at changing units every five years. The point in time when this will be fully implemented will be reached gradually in the years to come. Rotation of managers can be very beneficial to staff and managers. Changing units will promote personal development. Both parties - staff members and managers - will put in a renewed effort to make things work better and so make relationships between managers and staff even more professional. Furthermore, best practices will be better propagated throughout DG 1. Taking into consideration staff reporting periods, the changes are being grouped such that they always take place around the start of the year. In 2014, the first rotations took place in February, followed by a second batch in March, a third in April and a fourth in October. Director rotation for 2015 is being prepared and discussed with DG 4. The rotation plan will be aligned with the gradual roll-out of the new career structure, in particular the team manager structure. c) DG 1 Quality Action Plan and individual quality objectives
21. The DG 1 Quality Action Plan comprises challenging objectives for 2015 that require continuation of the good progress made in 2014, with actions that respond to the findings of internal quality reports and emphasise the further development of the Quality Management System, improvement in timely delivery of products and
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continued focus on coverage of highly relevant Asian documentation during search. Individual quality objectives are in the process of being set for all examiners. These are cascaded down from the DG 1 level and aligned with joint cluster quality action plans to ensure that the efforts of each examiner contribute effectively to the achievement of the EPO's strategic quality objectives. d) CASE – Conformity Assurance for Search & Examination
22. The new DG 1 non-conforming products registration procedure, known as CASE, was introduced in 2014. It led to increased consultation within the examining division before it issues a search report or sends grant documents, which is reflected in an increase in the quality of granted applications. In the period from February to November 2014, the proportion of conforming searches according to the checks performed in CASE was 98.8%. Spot audits carried out by directors during 2014 indicate a product conformity rate of around 95% for grants approved by the examining divisions. Figures show a constant increase in the use of CASE, which indicates growing acceptance of this new quality system among examiners. e) Reorganisation and activities of clusters in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) area
23. In response to the technical convergence of the computer and telecommunications industries, the two clusters dealing with these areas were brought together under one Principal Director in early 2014, and several of the corresponding directorates reorganised. One important result of this new structure has been the creation of two new directorates, one dedicated to ICT security and the other to HCI (human- computer interfaces), in which expertise previously distributed across the two clusters has been concentrated. The two clusters concerned have not only absorbed these changes but also exceeded their 2014 planned performance objectives. Principal benefits of this consolidation will be an even greater level of procedural harmonisation (particularly regarding business methods and computer- implemented inventions) and enhanced capability and presence in related issues such as standards and open source. Further synergies and benefits arising from this rationalisation of the major part of our ICT clusters are already planned for 2015.
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f) Areas of Competence (AoC)
24. The implementation of Areas of Competence in DG 1 is proceeding faster than expected. In more than 99% of all technical fields, a strategic direction for the future has been chosen, and already today around 80% of examiners work in AoCs. Hence the Office is well equipped for more team-oriented working models in future.
D. PRIOR-ART DOCUMENTATION
25. Over 2014 DG 1 has targeted Asian documentation as a key area for action. Examiners have all been trained and supplied with up-to-date support information, and there has been an increased focus on improving both search and translation tools. This work has resulted in an increase from one million Asian full-text documents viewed per quarter to 1.5 million, a rapid 50% increase which has resulted in an increase to 21% of all patent citations originating from Asia. There was particular improvement in Chinese citations, which are up 30%, and in Korean citations, up 20%. Work has begun on analysing Indian and Taiwanese patent activity and the influence on patent documentation from these countries, with the start of a trend watching programme. The internal awareness campaign has been continued with training for all examiners, and external communication has been increased with a flyer on Asian documentation as well as the standard presentation available for all examiners and directors going on mission.
E. EARLY CERTAINTY FROM SEARCH (ECFS)
26. On 1 July 2014 Early Certainty from Search was implemented. The aim of this project is to optimise the use of examining resources at the EPO by organising the workflow at examiner level in order to deliver, as early as possible in the patent grant process, the information required by industry to assess the risks and opportunities entailed in pending applications.
27. The Early Certainty from Search outlines are:
• Issue all searches with opinion on time: this ensures that no blind spots are created in the European IP landscape. A comprehensive preliminary opinion on the patentability of applications searched by the EPO is provided quickly to the applicant and the public. The EPO’s goal is to issue European search reports and search opinions within six months after receipt. This will
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guarantee that in most cases there is timely publication of the application with the search report after 18 months from priority.
• Finish examination files already started, instead of starting new cases: by setting a higher focus on issuing further examination actions than on first examination actions, the EPO ensures that the delays inherent in a complex examination procedure such as the one enshrined in the EPC are more fairly shared between the Office and applicants.
• Fast-track examination for third parties: until July 2014 only applicants could request acceleration of the procedure. Now third parties can also fast-track examination by filing non-anonymous and substantiated observations.
28. With Early Certainty from Search, EPO intends to fully comply in 2015 with the stricter timeliness standards set for all searches, oppositions and examinations with either a legal date or a committed date or that have a strong potential to be direct grants. By the end of 2014, backlogs in these types of file have already significantly decreased.
F. PROCEDURES a) PCT Direct
29. Since 1 November 2014, the PCT Direct concept has been fully operational. PCT Direct links European or national first filings searched by the EPO with subsequent PCT applications for which the EPO acts as ISA. The objective is to enable applicants, when filing the subsequent PCT application, to file submissions in the form of a reply to the search opinion for the former application. With this new option, both the examiner and the applicant can extract optimum benefit from the work done for the first filing. It is expected that the international phase will be more often concluded with a positive written opinion. Having a positive WO-ISA from the EPO will for applicants be powerful leverage for extending IP rights outside Europe as well, in particular in the light of expected developments in the PCT PPH. PCT Direct is limited to applicants making a first filing either at the EPO or in a country for which the EPO performs the search and to PCT applications filed at the EPO as receiving office. It is planned to expand this concept in 2015 on the one hand to PCT applications filed at any receiving office and on the other hand to PCT applicants for which the EPO has not searched the first filing.
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b) PCT applications with business method-type claims originating from the US
30. In accordance with the PCT strategy being implemented at WIPO, notably requiring all ISAs/IPEAs to withdraw their limitations, the EPO removed its last limitation in October 2014: the competence limitation on applications comprising business methods originating from the US. As from 1 January 2015, the EPO will treat all EP and PCT applications in the same way, providing equal treatment to the applicants of all countries. This decision has no substantive impact, as business methods continue not to be patentable at the EPO, following the established jurisprudence and applicable legal frameworks (PCT, EPO). c) Clarification of the concept of "added subject-matter" – Article 123(2) EPC
31. In February 2014 the EPO invited representatives from the main user associations of Europe, Japan and USA to attend a symposium on Article 123(2) EPC. EPO practice when assessing "added subject-matter" in amendments filed during examination and opposition was perceived as being too strict. At this symposium user representatives and expert examiners worked together on improving mutual understanding of this issue. As a result of this symposium, a set of recommendations for clarifying EPO practice in this respect was issued. Most recommendations have been incorporated in the 2014 version of the Guidelines issued in October. The remaining ones will be further monitored with the aim of incorporating a second batch in the 2015 version of the Guidelines.
32. Implementation of the results of this symposium was greatly appreciated by users. Moreover, this concept of organising a symposium between practitioners to address practical issues in the patent granting process has proven to be effective for both the user community and the Office. Several user associations from all over the world have asked the Office to repeat this kind of event. Therefore, it is planned to organise such symposia every two years on different issues. d) More flexibility in case of non-unity – new Rule 164 EPC
33. Since 1 November 2014, all applicants, irrespective of their chosen route (Euro- direct or Euro-PCT) and ISA (EPO or another ISA), have the same rights regarding non-unity prosecution. At the start of the procedure, all Euro-PCT applicants can ask for a European search report on any invention claimed, irrespective of the previous ISA. In examination, all Euro-PCT applicants can choose any searched invention as the basis for further prosecution.
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e) Earlier publication of Guidelines for Examination
34. The Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office are updated on a yearly basis. For the first time, the 2014 version of the Guidelines was publicly available one month before their entry into force on 1 November 2014. In 2015 the Office plans to publish guidelines presenting EPO practice when acting as an international authority under the PCT. This new set of guidelines will usefully complement the ISPE Guidelines published by the International Bureau. This additional service will help applicants to optimise the use of PCT services provided by the EPO and will enhance the transparency of EPO procedure.
G. UTILISATION IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT (UIP)
35. UIP is in production with the national patent offices of Austria, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Spain. Three streams of priority data are being received via UIP: citations; national office documents such as search reports and written opinions; and classification data. The citations and documents are made available to examiners before they start work on the dossiers. The information on classification is used for automatic routing of the second filing at the EPO.
36. For the period from January 2014 to December 2014 some 9 990 UIP responses were received. By way of comparison, in 2013 the Office received around 5 700 responses. The most recent addition to UIP was the Spanish Patent Office (OEPM). Since 22 October 2014 the EPO has been receiving Spanish national search products for EP and PCT second filings claiming a Spanish priority. The UIP team is working with other national offices, including the Czech and Swiss offices, to facilitate their participation in the UIP scheme. The intention is to add the Czech and Swiss offices to the scheme in 2015.
IV. BOARDS OF APPEAL
A. PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTION
37. In 2014, 2 354 technical appeals were filed, 6.4% fewer than in 2013. This confirms a decreasing trend over the last four years (-11.4% since 2011). The number of technical cases settled in the same period was 2 300, a 7.6% increase compared to 2013. The Legal Board of Appeal received 22 appeals and settled 22. By the end of 2014 the Enlarged Board of Appeal had received 18 petitions for review. In the course of 2014 it settled 17 petitions, none of which were granted.
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38. The significant increase in the number of settled technical appeals (+7.6%), combined with an equally significant decrease in the number of new technical appeals, has enabled the boards almost completely to close the gap between incoming and settled appeal cases. The number of appeals that were settled without a decision also increased (800; +17.5% compared to 2013). Although it is too early to make definitive statements, there is a strong indication that this is at least partly due to the introduction of the partial reimbursement of the appeal fee on 1 April 2014. In more cases than in the past a substantive communication from a board triggered the subsequent withdrawal of the appeal. As to incoming technical appeals, the decrease is most visible in ex parte appeals, meaning appeals against decisions by the examining divisions to refuse the grant of a patent. The number of inter partes appeals, i.e. appeals against decisions of opposition divisions, has remained relatively stable.
39. Despite this positive development, the situation with respect to levels of appeals in stock and pendency times is not satisfactory, as they are continuing to increase. The average duration of technical appeals in 2014 was 34.3 months (+8.2%).
B. REFERRALS AND PETITIONS FOR REVIEW
40. In 2014 three new referrals under Art. 112 EPC were made to the Enlarged Board of Appeal, bringing the total number of referrals presently pending before the Enlarged Board to four. G 1/14 concerns the issue of whether an appeal is inadmissible or deemed not to have been filed if the appeal is filed and the appeal fee paid after the relevant time limit has expired. The answer to the referred question will determine whether or not the appeal fee is reimbursed. G 2/13, which raised a similar issue, is no longer pending, as the underlying application is deemed to be withdrawn.
41. G 3/14 concerns the issue of whether clarity of independent claims can or even must be examined during opposition and opposition appeal proceedings when the independent claim has been amended only by a literal insertion of all or some features of a dependent claim already granted. The answers to the questions referred, whatever they may be, will have a considerable impact on opposition and opposition appeal proceedings, and the case has thus been given priority.
42. In 2014 the Enlarged Board of Appeal decided on three referrals. In G 1/11 it decided that a technical board of appeal was competent to hear an appeal related to a case where an EPO examining division decided - in a decision taken separately from its decision to grant the patent or refuse the application - not to
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refund search fees under Rule 64 EPC. In G 1/12 the Enlarged Board held that it was possible to correct a notice of appeal under Rule 101(2) EPC by a request for substitution by the name of the true appellant, provided the correction only expressed what was intended when the appeal was filed.
43. In G 1/13 the Enlarged Board held that where an opposition was filed by a company which thereafter ceased to exist, but was subsequently restored to existence under national law with retroactive effect, and all those events happened before the decision of the opposition division became final, the EPO had to recognise the retroactive effect of that provision of national law and allow the opposition proceedings to be continued by the restored company. Where an appeal was filed in the name of the non-existent opponent company against the decision of the opposition division and the company’s retroactive restoration to existence took place after expiry of the time limit for filing the notice of appeal, the board of appeal had to treat the appeal as admissible.
44. Concerning the petitions for review received in 2014, interlocutory decision R 19/12, issued on 29 April 2014, concluded that the chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal should be excluded from the proceedings because of an objectively justified suspicion of partiality. The main reason for the finding was that the chairman, being also an EPO vice-president, was closely integrated into the administrative structure of the Office, in particular through his role as member ofthe Office's Management Advisory Committee and General Advisory Committee, where he was bound by the President’s instructions. In the reasoning of the decision the Enlarged Board also addressed in more general terms the problem of the judicial status of the boards of appeal and their institutional setting as part of the European Patent Office.
45. As a direct consequence of this decision and pending further reflection, the President has taken some precautionary measures to enable the chairman of the Enlarged Board and the members of the boards of appeal to continue to exercise their functions. The Council was informed at its June meeting and decided to mandate its Board under Article 28 EPC to prepare a debate on this matter at a dedicated Board meeting in October, with a view to proposing possible solutions.
46. In the meantime, objections to the chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal have been filed in two other petition for review cases, with reference to R 19/12.
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V. INTERACTION WITH STAKEHOLDERS
SACEPO
47. The 46th annual meeting of SACEPO took place in Munich on 22 May 2014, attended by high-level representatives of European users, from industry (BusinessEurope) and the patent profession (epi). There was lively debate on a variety of items and recent developments, and constructive feedback was received on topics ranging from unitary patent protection and the Unified Patent Court to the Cooperative Patent Classification, as well as recent and forthcoming changes to the Implementing Regulations to the EPC, substantive patent law harmonisation, the patentability of biotechnological inventions, Article 123(2) EPC, forthcoming procedural changes, Asian documentation, the EPO's PCT strategy and PCT Direct, and the Early Certainty from Search project. Furthermore, the Office announced that it intends to introduce new methods of fee payment. Reports from the two SACEPO sub-groups on Rules and Guidelines and from the SACEPO sub-committee on Patent Documentation (SACEPO PDI) ensured the co-ordination of user input on the EPO's projects, changes and services.National judges
48. In June 2014 six national judges participated in a training programme at the EPO, which included a three-week internship with a board of appeal. This programme strengthens interaction between national judges and members of the boards of appeal.
49. From 9-12 September 2014 the biennial Judges' Symposium took place in Tallinn. The participants were mainly national judges from the contracting states, along with members of the boards of appeal. One of the aims of the symposium is to increase harmonisation in the interpretation of European patent law, and many fruitful discussions on relevant issues of patent law took place.
50. In October the Academy's seminar for patent law practitioners entitled "EPO boards of appeal and key decisions" was held in The Hague. The case law of the boards was presented by staff of DG 3 and also commented on from the users' perspective. The event was booked to capacity, with about 250 practitioners attending.
Partnership for quality
51. For many years, the EPO has been holding dedicated meetings known as "Partnership for quality" meetings with user organisations (epi, BusinessEurope, AIPLA, IPO) in Europe and America, which constitute the largest applicant regions
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for the EPO. In 2012, the EPO began "Partnership for quality" meetings with Japanese users as well. In November 2014, “Partnership for quality” meetings were for the first time held in China and Korea, paving the way for greater user engagement in these major geographical regions too.
VI. IT ROADMAP (ITR)
A. DELIVERIES FOR EXAMINERS
52. The OCR-BNS project has now completed the OCR work on the remaining prior- art patent and non-patent literature documents that were not yet stored electronically, thereby making all in-house EPO documentation text-searchable. Following extensive testing, examiners have received the first generation of a new tool that goes beyond pure Boolean search. With this tool, examiners are now able to select passages of text in a patent application and on that basis find similar prior-art documents. The tool also allows examiners to perform figure searches. The search results provided by this figure and non-Boolean search tool are innovatively ranked according to the number of common concepts (or features) as well as according to their occurrences in the full text in a document. Results can also be filtered, e.g. by limitation to classes.
53. Examiners are now using an electronic B-publication system (eDrex) that allows them to correct and finalise the print-ready B-publication, as well as see all the changes between various versions of the claims and description submitted by applicants. This had been rolled out to all examiners by the end of 2014. A systematic high-quality OCR of any existing dossier, just prior to publication, is being prepared for Q2 2015.
B. EPOQUE
54. Following the introduction of the New Internal in EPOQUE, the Office has concentrated its efforts on the development of the new EPOQUE database structure and of the "Logical Database". The Logical Database establishes a relational link between separate databases by using the same reference identification for the same patent application across databases. About 150 different databases with 800 million records have now been migrated, allowing users to perform a single query across multiple databases, avoiding time- consuming cross-searches and producing a single result and a single consolidated display.
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55. The migration of EPOQUE and Espacenet to run on the new open system machines using the new database structure is now completed, and the rollout of this new version of EPOQUE to EPO examiners was completed in November 2014. After the migration, the search system showed an increase in performance by a factor of about 3. As announced at the EPOQUE Net user meeting in September 2014, the EPOQUE Net pilot software was made available to member states in November 2014, and thanks to the active involvement and extensive feedback received from some seven offices, the final rollout began on 3 February 2015. The rollout is expected to be completed by 30 April at the latest, to allow the EPO to start decommissioning the old infrastructure as of 1 May 2015. This rollout is accompanied by extensive release notes, including documentation relating to the new databases.
56. It is also planned that ECLA will no longer be available in EPOQUE Net as of 1 April 2015, due to the decommissioning of ECLA.
C. DELIVERIES FOR EXTERNAL USERS
57. During the EPO User Day in Stockholm in October, the Office officially launched CMS Online Filing Version 1.8, as well as its new web-form filing service. These new systems include technical features such as:
• web-based systems
• no local installation of any software required
• automatic updates
• assured security
• equal support for both EP and PCT procedures (including subsequently filed documents, a long-standing user requirement).
58. At the IP5 heads' meeting in Korea in June 2014 the Office announced the EPO's Global Dossier service. This tool, available to the public, is the first product of IP5 collaboration on Global Dossier. Rapid response by the IT Roadmap team enabled the EPO to be the first to deliver the Global Dossier file wrapper viewer service, accessing data made available by the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO). Resources have been allocated for 2015 to expand the EPO's Global Dossier coverage to include all the IP5 offices. It is hoped that by the end of Q1 2015 the JPO and KIPO will join SIPO in making file wrapper documents available on demand to users of the service.
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59. In the coming months work will concentrate on the eDossier, which will provide a common user interface for examiners, formalities staff and applicants for up-to- date and easy-to-use online access to any patent file at the EPO. The eDossier will provide a unified graphical user interface that is tailored to each user community's specific needs, along with the associated fully electronic workflow. It will be the central hub for all day-to-day work of examiners, formalities officers and other actors in the patent grant process, and will eliminate the need for systematically printed and maintained paper files.
D. PLAN FOR JOINT WORK PACKAGE
60. The 2014 plan for implementation of the CMS Joint Work Package could not be executed as foreseen due to difficulties encountered by the main integrator. This issue is being addressed and the EPO is looking for an alternative solution with minimum impact on the overall plan. The impact on other projects of the re-engineered patent grant process is been evaluated and the planning adapted.
VII. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AUTOMATION
61. IT developments for each business line are reported by the respective business lines and are therefore not included in this report. This report on activities in the IT area is limited to progress in the Office-wide area, specific IM progress and IT security.
A. ALIGNMENT TO INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES
• Business process re-engineering in the corporate area
62. In 2014, benefiting from experience in the patent grant process in optimising processes and finding ways to improve efficiency, the EPO started a pilot on applying business process re-engineering to support functions in the corporate area. It is developing standard services and tools to allow units to document their processes and conduct their re-engineering projects in a harmonised way. This will allow the EPO to engage in a continuous improvement culture in the corporate area as well and to modernise ways of working, thereby improving overall EPO efficiency.
• IM strategic workforce planning
63. In the last quarter of 2014, the Information Management (IM) department engaged in developing its strategic workforce planning for the coming years. It will not only allow a transition to the new career system in a way that is aligned with the IT industry, but will also allow the EPO to plan its transition to adapt its workforce to
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the changes embedded in the IT Roadmap. One of the elements of IM strategic workforce planning is the adoption of the standard CIGREF job profiles based on the European e-competence framework. This allows the EPO to relate its workforce to what is best practice outside and to evolve with the evolution of the IT industry. When key skills are necessary, it allows the EPO to recruit in a more targeted way. For IM staff it provides a broader perspective, as it can relate to corresponding developments in skills and competences happening elsewhere. Ultimately, IM strategic workforce planning is a dynamic framework which will help the EPO to maintain its IT workforce and to plan in response to changes in its training and recruitment needs. It is an essential tool to complement the new career system and to implement it in the most professional way.
• Transition to service contracts
64. Following a large tender, in 2014 IM successfully moved to a new external sourcing model based on managed services without any negative impact on IT operations. In the past the EPO managed many individual contracts, which was far from efficient. The transition to service contracts allows the EPO to be more rigorous in expressing its needs and requirements and to move to a more structured approach to assessing the services delivered. This transition demanded intensive co-ordination among IM staff in order to make sure that operations continued at the same level of delivery, as well as considerable flexibility to adapt to this new way of working. This is part of a broader shift in IM towards a higher degree of maturity in delivering services within and outside the EPO.
• Desktop services
65. The EPO has finished the rollout of the new workplace with the completion of the migration of mail services to Microsoft Outlook/Exchange and the deployment of new collaboration tools. These new tools enable PC-to-PC video conferencing, screen and document sharing, and collaboration such as simultaneous work on the same document. These are important factors in efficiency and enhanced communication and co-ordination between all units within the Office. They facilitate harmonisation by reducing the perceived distance between sites.
B. IT SECURITY
• Cybersecurity
66. The cybersecurity stream of the Security Roadmap has implemented several measures required by the projects of the IT Roadmap:
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o A web application firewall has been added to our web servers to protect us against application-level attacks.
o A dual virus scan mechanism has been added to our web-form filing service.
o A vulnerability scan has been performed on CMS.
o A full vulnerability assessment of the IT infrastructure has been performed by a third party. The improvement recommendation will be addressed in a project starting in Q1 2015.
• ISO 27001 certification
67. The new version of ISO 27001 focuses more strongly on processes and the associated documentation. EPO has standardised the risk assessment and security requirements processes. All related documentation has been standardised according to ISO 27001 and is actively used.
• Modernised identity and access management
68. For our new web-form filing service, a user self-registration mechanism has been implemented, enabling applicants to deliver their patent application to the EPO without intervention from an EPO employee. An Identity & Access Management project has been prepared and will start in Q1 2015.
• Business continuity
69. At the beginning of 2014, an external company reviewed our crisis management processes against industry best practices. The gaps identified are being closed. The IM executive board and IM managers have run a crisis management exercise. Our IT crisis management processes are ISO 27001-compliant.
• Security awareness
70. A security awareness campaign has been launched. This campaign includes three well-attended town hall sessions in The Hague. On average there are about 400 attendees. In addition, the sessions are broadcast Office-wide to desktops with live video broadcasts. The topics are "Remote attack using a USB stick", "Information theft via mobile devices" and "Physical security". In addition, three mandatory online training modules on security aspects have been developed and followed by all staff.
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VIII. QUALITY
71. 2014 was marked by the certification audit for IS0 9001, successfully concluded at the beginning of October 2014. The auditors in their report praised the EPO staff as highly motivated with a strong orientation towards continual improvement. They were satisfied with the procedural documentation, noted the very well-structured organisation with clear responsibilities and the high level of qualification and training of staff. They concluded that the EPO produced core products of a high quality level and fully merited certification.
72. Besides this landmark achievement, three other major steps deserve to be mentioned: individual quality objectives are being cascaded down to support staff in order to ensure the highest levels of quality; the new complaint system is increasingly driving change and improvements in external user service; and finally – on 9 December 2014 – the EPO published its first Customer Service Charter describing the service levels that can be expected from the Office when contacted by users.
73. In October 2014 the EPO's Quality Management System (QMS) for the patent granting process was externally audited and certified as meeting the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008 management standard. QMS is running successfully thanks to strong commitment from top management and operational units. It will help to further increase the Office's efficiency and support the EPO's strategy of remaining global leader in terms of the quality of patent products and services. Based on the experience gained from certification of the patent granting process, the Office will support Patent Information in developing a QMS according to the ISO 9001 standard. A project was launched for this activity in December 2014. In agreement with the Quality Roadmap plan (CA/27/14), completion by 2016 is envisaged.
74. Quality assurance experts embedded in DG 1 and DG 2 PDPA facilitated the alignment of QMS documentation and practice. Support for flagging, registering, tracking, resolving and evaluating the effectiveness of corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) was provided to the operational units to smooth QMS operation. PD Quality Management co-ordinated the introduction of a quality dashboard. This online tool reports key quality performance indicators and cascades from the EPO level down to DG 1 joint cluster and Patent Administration unit level. Quality monitoring ensures process control and is a key component of our QMS. A first set of quality performance indicators was also prepared for publication externally.
75. Detailed integrated quality reports were delivered to DG 1, and the key aspects were presented to each joint cluster in 2014. The reports combine operational quality, user satisfaction, complaints and other process statistics (e.g. search
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strategy and use of documentation resources) into a comprehensive picture that supports the identification of improvement actions. A similar exercise will be conducted for both DG 1 clusters and Patent Administration units in 2015. In addition, the analysis of quality issues raised by applicants was supplemented with statistical fact-based analysis of specific sets of patent applications in question.
76. Following requests from management, a number of ad-hoc analyses were performed, including a report on PACE performance, an evaluation of data on the number of independent claims per application, a report on critical points raised by industry, a breakdown of revocation and limitation requests, and an analysis of cases with additional citations in examination.
77. The Office's co-operation with the JPO continues (collaborative study phase III), in particular by identifying differences between the offices in terms of first action outcomes and prior-art usage. A greater understanding of legal, procedural and other factors has been achieved, and ongoing efforts will potentially increase the quality and efficiency of our processes. Quality issues with SIPO have been addressed in a similar way, and this will continue this year. In addition, the Office will engage with KIPO on PCT and PPH metrics. The Office continues to work closely with other international authorities and WIPO on developing PCT metrics which will enable individual offices to assess the effectiveness of the PCT system and help identify areas where improvements could be made. Some member states have expressed their wish to exchange information on the implementation and maintenance of quality management systems. The Office welcomes this opportunity for information exchange.
78. In addition, an upcoming two-stage deployment will allow PCT applicants to make full use of the EPO's automatic deposit account payment system. This long- standing user request will initially allow automatic debiting from a deposit account from 1 April 2015 onwards for all PCT fees (except the SISA fee, which is out of scope). The second stage from 1 July 2015 will be full implementation of the technical solution, i.e. the plug-in from WIPO and an automatic workflow. Also on 1 April, the EPO will start accepting online filings in the appeals area for the first time, and a number of functional improvements suggested by applicant feedback will be implemented.
79. The annual quality review of 2014 achievements has taken place. The EPO exceeded its own objectives as regards user satisfaction and quality of granted patents. Challenging objectives for 2015 were set and for the first time cascaded down to the individual level of examiners and patent administration staff.
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IX. BUILDINGS, FACILITY MANAGEMENT AND PROCUREMENT
A. PROJECT NEW MAIN BUILDING, THE HAGUE
80. With the completion of the final design, the construction of the energy building, the preparation of the site and the demolition work for the new building, major progress was achieved both off- and on-site during 2014. The sheet piling for the energy centre in May 2014 marked the start of the works on-site. In July 2014, the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the Administrative Council, representatives of other international organisations and the architects of the new building took part in the official foundation-stone ceremony. In December, demolition work started on the part of the Hinge building which is located in the construction area. The final design of the building was finally approved at the end of the year. In parallel, building permission was granted and, since no appeals were filed within the time limit, is now irrevocable.
81. In order to ensure the Office's continued smooth functioning and to minimise disruption for users, various measures have been taken, such as relocating certain functions (e.g. the bank and travel agency) and opening two new entrances to the current Main and Shell buildings to replace the entrance to the Hinge building which has been closed since December 2014.
B. OTHER BUILDING PROJECTS
82. In the run-up to termination of the rental contract for the Capitellum building in Munich, more than 250 staff members have been moved back into the PschorrHöfe premises over the last few months. Cleaning and removal of EPO- specific equipment is under way in parallel to the moves, and will be completed by the end of March. The building will then be handed over to the landlord as planned on 31 March 2015. The EPO will then no longer have any rented space in Munich.
83. The works to improve physical security in the Isar building have been completed, and each speed gate is now connected via an intercom and a camera to the central reception desk. The detailed planning for the same measures in the PschorrHöfe is currently out to tender.
84. The works in our Vienna building will be completed in May 2015. This renovation will provide the Vienna premises with physical-security equipment in line with EPO standards, a new building entrance and an access road via the botanical garden.
85. Concerning the EPO's data centres, immediate measures (back-up for critical equipment, renovation and maintenance) to minimise any risks of disruption have been decided and are already being implemented.
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C. CENTRAL PROCUREMENT
86. With a total purchase volume of approximately EUR 250m and a portfolio of more than 6 000 suppliers managed in 2014, Central Procurement has continued its efforts to support the EPO's business units in their purchasing activities. In parallel it has worked to optimise the daily business, conducted major reorganisations and launched strategic projects to improve procurement practices and generate further efficiencies.
87. Central Procurement was itself reorganised in 2014 in order to better align procurement competencies, processes and tools with business expectations and specifics. Besides improving communication with the business, this new organisation should also ensure deeper market expertise, shorter procurement lead-times and customised service delivery. An important new project has been launched aiming at (i) clarifying the roles and responsibilities among the departments involved in procurement processes, (ii) increasing flexibility in procurement approaches to gain further room for negotiation with suppliers, and (iii) increasing the EPO's attractiveness and visibility in order to broaden its supplier base.
X. HUMAN RESOURCES
A. NEW CAREER AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
88. The new career system approved by the Administrative Council on 10 December 2014 is probably one of the most important and significant reforms for the modernisation of the Office and for its long-term sustainability. The career and performance management reform was given the highest priority among HR projects in 2014, with the work focusing at that stage mainly on the construction of the new system and the definition of its legal framework. The new career and performance management concept has been laid down in our Codex through a comprehensive review of the Service Regulations (approved by the Council in CA D/10/14) and three new circulars (Circular No. 364 on implementation of the new career system, No. 365 on the new EPO competency framework, and No. 366 on the new performance management system). The implementation phase started on 1 January 2015 and will last one year.
89. A single-spine salary system has been devised and the whole career framework has been redesigned to establish a closer link between the way staff are rewarded and the contribution they make to the missions and goals of the EPO. The performance management and promotion processes have been redesigned with a stronger emphasis on performance, a link to competencies and more responsibility and empowerment of managers. The new objectives-setting process has already started.
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90. For the staff, this reform provides opportunities for rewards all types of performance and competencies on a yearly basis. Based on continuous dialogue between staff members and their managers, generalised objectives-setting and better formalisation and harmonisation of the competencies and contributions expected from each staff member will help to increase both overall performance and motivation over a long career. The harmonised competencies framework and job profiles, the calibration of objectives, the harmonisation of reward criteria, as well as the creation of the Appraisal Committee, guarantee the transparency and fairness of the process.
91. The system allows the acknowledgement of individual as well as collective contributions. For example, the competencies framework emphasises the importance of team spirit and the general interest, and bonuses can be offered at individual or team level. The new system also creates new career opportunities in the form of the senior expert career (equivalent to a director career), and by facilitating transversal careers and opening up possibilities of access to higher positions through selection based solely on the criteria of performance, competencies and experience.
92. For the management, the new system provides more scope for managing performance and for better linking performance and the deepening of competencies to the reward system. This reinforces the position of managers as a link between strategy and overall performance and the individual contributions. Each year, the managers will cascade downwards the objectives deriving from the Office's strategy, missions, vision and goals, assess the performance and competencies of their reportees, propose individual and collective rewards, and be ultimately accountable for the performance of the units placed under their responsibility.
93. By reinforcing the roles and empowerment of managers in performance management, the new system also increases their responsibility and duties. The reform is therefore supported by a set of training measures which started in 2014 (objectives-setting) and will continue in 2015 (competencies-based interviews, allocation of rewards, communication), as well as by simulation tools supporting the decision-making process for reward allocation. The adjustment of tools to meet the needs of the reformed career system has already started (with the first release of the performance management tool, allowing objectives-setting), and will continue gradually throughout 2015.
94. For the benefit of the Organisation as a whole, the new career system is framed by strong monitoring of the global budgetary envelope to ensure the long-term social, demographic and financial sustainability of the Office. In particular, the definition of a yearly envelope dedicated to rewarding performance will allow the Administrative Council, on a proposal from the President of the Office, to ensure that the envelope reflects the overall level of performance, and is financially affordable in terms of short- and long-term sustainability. Work has already started on defining the annual envelope and providing guidance on its distribution.
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95. The career reform will continue to feature high on the HR agenda, with the implementation of the new system in 2015. Important next steps will be the transposition of staff to the new single-spine salary system (as of July 2015) and the first practical application of the various new career components such as the competency framework, with its relevant elements (job profiles and functional competencies) being finalised and published by March, so that the competency assessments can start thereafter.
B. SALARY ADJUSTMENT METHOD
96. Besides salary increases linked to the career system, which are now based exclusively on performance and competencies, the salary method provides EPO staff with an element of guarantee against a comparative erosion of their purchasing power. A new salary method was proposed in 2014 for the next six years and was approved by the Administrative Council in June 2014. To a large extent, the adjustment procedure remains unchanged: it is still based on the principles of parallelism with salary developments in national civil services and of purchasing power parities.
97. To ensure reasonable salary adjustments respecting these principles whilst also taking into consideration the economic realities of the member states, the new method has two new clauses: a moderation clause and an exception clause. The moderation clause aims at avoiding the fluctuations observed over the six years of the old method by limiting the results of the procedure to 2% around local inflation - any excess or deficit being held over until the subsequent year. This smoothing mechanism, together with official acknowledgement of the nominal guarantee, will support budget forecasting whilst also meeting the expectations of both staff and the Administrative Council alike.
98. The exception clause aims to take greater account of economic developments among the member states. If, at the time of the adjustment, the combined gross domestic product of the EPO contracting states is more than 1% below that for the previous full year, the result of the salary adjustment procedure is suspended until a recovery has been observed. The new salary method was applied for the first time in July 2014. None of the EPO host nations was affected by the moderation clause, although it did limit the 2014 adjustments to the pensioner scales applicable in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland. The exception clause did not apply.
99. New salary scales with a single-spine structure to be used in the framework of the new career system were also approved by the Administrative Council in December 2014. The scales will be adjusted using the new procedure in exactly the same way as the previous scales. With the new career system and salary method, the Office now has two distinct types of salary growth, namely
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• an automatic moderate part through the salary adjustment
• a part totally under its own control and dependent on overall performance and financial affordability.
100. This will ensure greater control over growth in the wage bill, and enhance the Office's long-term financial sustainability.
C. HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
101. 2014 was the first full year of implementation of the first and second sets of health and well-being measures adopted by the Administrative Council in 2013 and aimed at reinforcing the prevention of sick-leave absences through improved communication between staff members and their management and through better co-ordination between all stakeholders (staff member, management, Human Resources departments and Occupational Health professionals). a) Sick leave
102. As a result, the Office has continued to reduce the sick-leave figures, and now has some of the lowest of all international organisations, with an average of 11.5 days in 2014 (all types of sick leave included), and 10.23 on average for examiners. In particular, the indicator measuring the rate of repeated short-term sick leave dropped by 50% between 2011 and 2014.
103. In 2013, the Administrative Council approved the legal basis for ad-hoc sick-leave verifications. In 2014, 12 such verifications were carried out by external practitioners. One staff member was found fit to work. In all other cases, the sick leave was confirmed, but in 5 cases the staff members returned to work earlier than indicated in the certificate. In only 6 of the 12 cases (50%) was it possible to perform the verification at the staff members' home; in the other cases, they were either not at home during the daily 4 hours of core time or refused to be examined there. In such cases, a follow-up verification took place at the EPO the following day.
104. In 2014, the third set of measures, to reform sick leave and incapacity at the EPO, was prepared. This has now been finalised, and is being presented to the Administrative Council for adoption in March 2015. The global framework is conducive to health recovery, returning to work and keeping the link to the workplace, while maintaining fair social coverage. The scheme is more flexible, and the focus is placed on work capacity rather than disability.
105. These reforms are supported by a set of accompanying measures enabling all stakeholders to be properly informed and trained. Proper workflows for the prevention of disability and reintegration are already in place and will be reinforced in 2015.
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b) Part-time home working
106. Part-time home working (PTHW), which was introduced in 2012 in order to enhance the work-life balance of the staff members concerned, is continuing to expand. As was to be expected, the rate of growth is now somewhat slower than in 2012 and 2013, when the scheme first came in. The number of participants is now more than 1 100, Office-wide. There was a net increase of 273 during 2014 (and of 333 in 2013, following a take-up figure of 510 in 2012, the first year of operation).
107. There is strong, positive feedback from staff on PTHW. For them, the scheme represents a positive improvement in their work-life balance. The Office also benefits, as examiners on PTHW are delivering more products than their non- PTHW peers, 7% more on average as a result of increased working time and higher productivity. The income generated by these additional products significantly exceeds the investments needed to operate PTHW. This clearly shows that the system is good for both staff and the Office.
108. To further enhance the benefits, the Office is now investing in improvements to the PTHW technical infrastructure and equipment which will eliminate known hindrances to working at home. These improvements will further facilitate home working and encourage new participants to join the scheme, thereby assuring its continued success.
D. SOCIAL DIALOGUE
109. The new Social Democracy framework approved by the Administrative Council in March 2014 was followed in June 2014 by the first Office-wide election for the staff representatives. 44 candidates were elected (20 at central level, 24 at local level). This election was characterised by intense campaigning, a high participation rate (more than 70%) and the election of representatives from all sites and categories and representing various tendencies and programmes. Although some staff representatives in office before the elections have brought various legal challenges against the new social framework, the running and outcome of the elections, under the supervision of a joint committee, have not been challenged as such.
110. The newly constituted Central Staff Committee (CSC), composed for the first time of representatives directly elected by the staff, took office on 1 July 2014. A first introductory meeting, chaired by the President of the Office, took place immediately after the elections, on 4 July 2014.
111. Since the first meeting of the new General Consultative Committee, on 5 September, four further meetings have taken place, to discuss matters such as the new career system, the salary adjustment and partial compensation for national tax on pensions before their submission to the Administrative Council in
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December. The reforms of sick leave and incapacity and of the career system, together with the reintroduction of the tax adjustment, were also presented to the GCC for advanced information and discussion in October 2014, making use of the newly introduced possibility to discuss important topics well before the official consultation.
112. The local staff committees at the four places of employment have also been in place since 1 July 2014. They have all elected a chairman and meet regularly with Office management to discuss local topics such as the arrangements for the now compulsory registration of EPO staff in Germany, and issues concerning the New Main building in The Hague.
113. Under the new legal framework, resources have been discussed and allocated to the newly elected staff representatives (time, rooms, duty travel, computers and mobile devices, dedicated intranet site, training measures of their choice, etc.).
114. Despite a clear legal obligation to do so and many reminders, the CSC has failed to appoint a chairman, or its representatives on the Appeals Committee. To ensure the smooth functioning of one of the EPO's most important joint bodies, the President had no choice but to ask for volunteers among the elected staff representatives. Three volunteered unconditionally, thus enabling the committee to function properly. At the end of December 2014, five staff representatives from the CSC and the local committees Munich and The Hague resigned in circumstances which are preoccupying.
115. There were 22 strike days in 2014, bringing the total to 27 since the strike regulations entered into force in July 2013. In 2014, the average number of participants per day corresponded to 848 staff members, and to a percentage of 12.3%. For 2013 (whole year) the total capacity lost due to strikes amounted to some 11 600 man-days, and for 2014 to some 15 700 man-days. That represents a 35% increase in lost capacity from 2013 to 2014. But although 90% of the strikers are examiners, the 2014 production targets were reached and indeed exceeded.
E. DISPUTE RESOLUTION a) Internal appeals
116. In 2014, the second year of implementation of the internal appeals reform, 223 management review requests were registered by the Conflict Resolution Unit (CRU). That was 37% lower than the figure for 2013 (330 requests).
117. The breakdown of the 2014 requests (see pie-chart below) is a very similar to that for 2013: 50% of cases (109) challenge new policies and regulations (such as Circulars 355 and 356 related to social democracy, application of the new strike regulations, etc.). This illustrates the current misuse of the internal appeals
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system, which of its nature is intended to allow staff members to challenge individual decisions adversely affecting them in their specific situation. The ILOAT ruled unequivocally in February 2014 that appeals against regulatory decisions are not permissible. The Office has repeatedly communicated on this issue and will continue to do so.
Management Review Requests by category in 2014
Selections Leave 4% promotions 6% Medical issues 6%
Regulations / Other 12% policies
50%
Allowances / payments 14% Disciplinary 8% 118. 90% of the requests for management review were processed within the statutory deadline of 2 months. 84 cases had led to litigation (final figures will be delivered by the end of July 2015). This preliminary data also confirms the figures in 2013, and shows that the management review is an effective filter, preventing litigation in 40% to 45% of cases (final figures for 2013). b) Litigation
119. In 2014 the ILO Administrative Tribunal delivered 40 judgments concerning the EPO. Of these 40 judgments, 35 rejected the complaint. The Tribunal made great efforts to reduce its backlog and thus reduce processing time for complaints filed by employees of the EPO and other organisations. For example, it increased the number or duration of its sessions, joined cases and conducted summary proceedings where appropriate.
120. The Tribunal's recent judgments concerning the EPO have clarified in particular that the EPO's dispute-resolution system is an individual one. Therefore, EPO employees, including staff representatives, cannot directly challenge decisions taken by the Administrative Council which need to be implemented individually.
121. Unfortunately, the EPO has also become involved in some employment-law cases before national courts in Germany and the Netherlands, putting at risk the fundamental principle of the immunity from jurisdiction it enjoys as an international organisation. Particularly noteworthy in 2014 was a judgment by the Court of
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Appeal in The Hague rejecting a former employee's assertion that the ILO Administrative Tribunal does not offer effective means of redress, inter alia because allegedly its proceedings take too lon c) Interpersonal disputes and harassment prevention
122. Concerning the prevention of harassment and the resolution of interpersonal disputes, a total of 16 confidential counsellors now support the Conflict Resolution Unit (CRU) in its informal conflict-resolution activities. They are trained conflict coaches and moderators. In 2014, a total of 109 interpersonal and informal conflict cases were dealt with by the confidential counsellors and the CRU. That was a noticeable (30%) increase over 2013, when 76 informal cases were reported. Of the informal cases, 68% (75 out of 109) reflect conflicts between superiors and staff members. One third of the conflicts between superiors and staff concern performance management.
Nature of conflict Number of cases Percentage Superior with staff member 75 68% Between colleagues 21 16% Private 7 12% Others 6 4% Total 109 100%
F. RECRUITMENT
123. 2014 was a successful year for recruitment, with 240 new staff joining the EPO (123 in The Hague, 115 in Munich and 2 in Berlin). The number of applications received in 2014 (18 158) was 24% up on 2013 (14 636). For examiner positions, 10 939 people applied, from 36 member states. The increase in applications is due to the use of more recruitment channels and to more concentrated efforts in this area, such as publication of EPO recruitment events, direct mailings to engineers and more structured campaigns. Six successful recruitment events were organised, and EPO representatives participated in 18 careers fairs in 13 different countries.
XI. EUROPEAN PATENT NETWORK
A. CO-OPERATION WITH MEMBER STATES
124. Positive developments in 2014 included the ongoing successful implementation of the Co-operation Roadmap and the unanimous approval of its update at the June Administrative Council.
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125. More and more member states signed up to the new co-operation framework based on bilateral co-operation plans (BCPs). In 2014, 8 additional BCPs were signed with the Czech Republic, Estonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania and the United Kingdom. Moreover, BCPs with Austria and France are expected to be signed soon, bringing the total number of signed BCPs to 32 (30 with existing member states and 2 with future ones).
126. The Annual Meeting on Co-operation took place in Crete. This meeting offered, once again, the opportunity to review progress and achievements in co-operation between the EPO and national patent offices under the Co-operation Roadmap. This year's meeting was the best-attended ever, with 36 EPO member states, 2 extension states and OHIM all present. The European Patent Network events, organised with the support of a hosting national office, continued to prove a successful way of promoting dynamic debate and the exchange of expertise and experience on projects and activities of common interest. 9 EPN events were organised in 2014.
127. Work continued on the co-operation activities and projects jointly developed by the EPO and its member states, and delivered very positive results last year. With machine translation, for example, having made the 32 languages operational in PatentTranslate at the end of 2013, in 2014 the EPO continued to prioritise the enhancement of the service's quality. This was done through continued collection of patent corpora and close interaction with Google. Machine translation, as a project, was therefore successfully concluded at the end of 2014, and has now entered its maintenance phase.
128. Regarding the Federated European Patent Register, deep linking was completed and made available in 27 national offices. Three offices have completed the technical developments for phase two of the project: the Federated Display in the EP Register. Several more NPOs are conducting final tests on these developments. The EPO is financing the web service of phase two at 100%, through its co-operation budget, and phase two will go live at the end of February 2015.
129. On online filing, a status report was given at the last TOSC. The EPO will maintain the present service for at least two years after introducing the future CMS-based online filing service.
130. 2014 was a consolidation phase for EpoqueNet users, following the intensive updating work in 2013. Even so, development work proceeded apace to bring forward the migration to the "logical databases" which were successfully deployed to all EPO examiners. EPO teams worked on the migration of about 800 million records, establishing the same reference identifiers for the same patent document across 150 different databases.
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131. Language training too has progressed very positively in the past year, with 15 member states actively participating in this project. Additionally, as regards the patent terminology training materials, the first book – "The EPO Bodies' Terminology Training Manual" – will be made available at this meeting in the three official languages. The work on the terminology books for the other five target groups (patent examiners, lawyers, patent attorneys, EQE candidates and judges) will continue in 2015.
132. The Candidate Support Project (CSP), thanks to the national offices' efforts, has reached out in 2014 to candidates from an increasing number of member states. 30 new EQE candidates from 14 member states started the CSP in September 2014, with new applications from Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Serbia and Slovakia.
133. Another co-operation project – the discussion platform for exchange on patent procedures – is also highly regarded by the member states, and a unique opportunity to promote the exchange of experiences and practices between examiners from the EPO and its member states. In 2014, discussion platform events took place in Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Turkey.
134. A further new and high-priority project is "Quality at Source", introduced by the Co-operation Roadmap update. It was presented officially at the workshop "From Machine Translation to Quality at Source" which took place in Prague on 23 and 24 October.
135. This well-received workshop highlighted the twofold purpose of the project: to set up a regular frontfile flow for publication data and to complete the backfile collection in full text. The data collected in the context of this project can be used in many different ways, for instance by making it available to examiners via Epoque and EpoqueNet, providing it to the public via Espacenet, and creating new patent corpora for the machine translation service.
B. EUROPEAN PATENT ACADEMY
136. In terms of training for member states' offices and institutions, more than 2 150 people took part in the Academy's on-site and e-learning seminars in 2014. Training events on search and examination, including expert exchanges, training in efficient communication for national examiners, and the conference on the case law of the boards of appeal, with 300 attendees, were highlights of the year.
137. Organised together with OHIM, an IP executive week in Munich and a conference on IP essentials for EU officials in Brussels combined exchange of knowledge and policy-making at just the right level.
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138. Training for staff at IP offices of non-member states continued within the framework of EPO international co-operation. A dedicated e-learning course on classification, search and patentability criteria was implemented for the IP office of Singapore. The Academy also gave starter training courses on EpoqueNet on-site at the new licensees, namely the IP offices of Chile and Colombia, and complementary e-learning courses began in the first quarter of 2015. The Academy's courses attract participants from around the globe and are fully booked.
139. For the fourth year in a row, the Academy also ran the EQE online pre- examination course, open to all EQE candidates. The total number of students rose to 357, so more than half of all candidates registered for the pre-exam in 2015 have followed this course. This online training is also a key part of the Candidate Support Project.
140. The Academy also provided various training courses at different levels to the judiciary in Europe. At the end of last year, the Office signed a Memorandum of Understanding that the EPO, via the Academy, will provide certain components of the training programme for UPC candidate judges at the Budapest Training Centre in the run-up to the creation of the Unified Patent Court. The first course on validity took place in February, with a second module on patent infringement to follow in April.
141. The online training offered by the Academy covered a wide variety of topics including the EPO as a PCT authority, the CPC, search tools, EpoqueNet, marketing strategies, and legal aspects. It attracted a total of more than 1 000 participants enrolled in tutored courses or taking up-to-date online modules. During 2014, ad-hoc live webinars were also organised on the new regulations to be observed when applying for a patent.
C. REPRESENTATION BEFORE THE EPO
142. At the end of the year under review, the number of registrations on the list of professional representatives was 11 302, slightly (1.7%) up on 2013. Today over 79% of professional representatives on the list have passed the European qualifying examination (EQE). The slight decrease in the number of deletion procedures was confirmed, whereas the overall number of changes registered by the Legal Division in the list of professional representatives increased by 11%.
143. The number of registered associations of professional representatives under Rule 152(11) EPC was 520 on 31 December 2014, an increase of 15% over the previous year. At the same time, the number of legal practitioners undertaking representation increased by 5%.
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144. In 2014, 407 candidates passed the EQE pursuant to Article 14(1) of the Regulation on the EQE. That is 38% fewer than in 2013. This significant decrease is due partly due a 10% fall in the number of candidates, and partly to a lower pass rate.
145. Registration and enrolment for the 2015 main EQE examination shows a slight increase, mainly due to more re-sitters, whereas the figure for the pre-examination has increased significantly. 1 799 and 913 candidates have applied to sit the main examination and pre-examination respectively. Overall, 96 had to be rejected because they did not fulfil the enrolment conditions.
146. The EQEASys automation project has made further progress. The next enrolment phase starts on 1 April 2015, and will allow complete online enrolment, including an upload function for electronic documents.
D. EUROPEAN PATENT REGISTER
147. The Legal Division's workload remained very high in the year under review. The number of suspensions of proceedings due to disputes about ownership of European patent applications remained constant during the year under review, whereas the number of decisions on interruptions of proceedings due to bankruptcy increased by more than 25%, apparently as a result of the worldwide economic crisis of recent years.
E. PATENT INFORMATION
148. The Federated European Register Service is a project based on interoperability between the patent registers of the EPO and the member states. In the first phase of the project, the registers of 27 member-state offices have been "deep-linked" to the EP register (AT, BE, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LT, LU, NL, NO, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK, TR). Turkey and Italy were added in 2014.
149. At the EPO, developments for the second phase 2 ("parallel retrieval") have now been completed. Three national registers (FI, RS, SI) have also set up the appropriate web services - a prerequisite for retrieving national data - for the system to work. Successful continuation of the project now depends on the implementation progress made in the national offices of the member states. In 2014, the EPO offered full financial support for offices having difficulties developing or modifying their register database.
150. A further project that aims to bring together data from various patent offices is the "Global Dossier". Initially conceived as a tool to help examiners in the IP5 offices share their work results, it is now available as a public version. This public version provides a central file inspection (or "file wrapper") service for the family members of a patent application across the IP5 offices. In 2014, Global Dossier went fully
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operational in the European Patent Register and Espacenet with EPO and SIPO data, including on-the-fly translation for documents in Chinese. USPTO, JPO and KIPO data will follow in 2015.
151. In the area of data acquisition, the highlight of 2014 was the addition of Korean data to the INPADOC legal status database. This followed China (2009) and Japan (2011) and means that all major patent-issuing authorities in the world are now included in INPADOC. The Korean data is being loaded in weekly batches. When the backfile is complete (March or April 2015) it will cover Korean legal- status events from 1983 to 2014.
152. In November, the EPO Patent Information Conference took place in Warsaw. With over 400 participants and 33 exhibitors, it confirmed its position as the leading patent information event in the Western world, and showed that users continue to view the EPO as the world's leading provider of patent information.
Post-grant renewal fees
153. In 2014, the Office received over EUR 430m from the member states as its share of national renewal fees. Patent information databases were used to ensure that the EPO was fully informed about all the patent fees. These same databases also inform the public via the EPO Register about the post-grant status of European patents in the member states. The member states improved their flow of information to the Office on lapses, resulting in a very high success rate (99.8%). There was a workshop in Paris on this topic, and bilateral visits to member states resolved several issues.
XII. EPO AS A GLOBAL PLAYER
A. BILATERAL RELATIONS
Validation agreement
154. The year 2014 saw the completion of the legislative process for the new Moroccan industrial property law introducing a validation system for European patents in Morocco, for entry into force on 1 March 2015. The implementation of this first- ever agreement on the validation of European patents outside Europe is a landmark moment for our Organisation, because it demonstrates the high value attached to the European patent and recognises the confidence placed in the work of this Office. It also offers users of the patent system a single procedure for obtaining patent protection in up to 41 European and non-European countries.
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155. The EPO also signed a validation agreement with Tunisia in July 2014, setting in motion the legislative process for ratification and implementation of the corresponding legal provisions under Tunisian law. Steady progress on a validation agreement with Moldova is likewise expected in 2015.
Bilateral co-operation framework
USPTO
156. The EPO and the USPTO set the standard for harmonisation of classification practices with the governance of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC). 2014 saw the completion of USPTO examiner transition to CPC, allowing the focus to turn now to quality assurance. The USPTO expressed its firm commitment to reaching high levels of quality in classification. The EPO and the USPTO have been working together since 2010 to develop a system for the automatic and electronic exchange of unpublished data in line with Rule 141 EPC. The USPTO is putting in place a legal framework for an "opt-out" system for exchanging unpublished information with the EPO.
JPO
157. In 2014 the EPO and the JPO implemented an automated system for the transfer of published and unpublished citation data in line with Rule 141 EPC. The bilateral agreement between the EPO and the JPO regarding Rule 141 has been in place since 2010. Automating the transfer of this data constitutes a considerable streamlining of a process that previously needed significant manual intervention. The JPO received a PatNet set in November and will start a one-year test of EPOQUE Net in April 2015.
India
158. The EPO made remarkable progress in 2014 in building co-operative relations with India. In the spring the Government of India approved the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Co-operation between the EPO and the Indian IP office, which was signed on 23 September in Geneva, together with our first biennial work plan on technical co-operation. The establishment of a formal co- operation framework led to a number of practice-related events with the Indian IPO, culminating in a week-long conference held in Munich in November 2014. The conference was an important first step towards establishing a regular exchange of views with Indian officials, as well as between European and Indian stakeholders, on the protection and examination of software-related patents.
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159. For the first time, the EPO co-operated with the Indian Ministry of Communications & IT's Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) on the organisation of patent search and information training. High-level EPO-Indian round-table talks were also held, as well as the Indo-European conference on ICT- related patents.
160. In parallel, the EPO continued to work with different government agencies in India in promoting the patent system in general and the European patent system in particular by organising roving seminars and various outreach activities. In the implementation of these programmes the EPO received support from the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) in New Delhi, which is co- ordinated by EUROCHAMBRES and operates an IPR helpdesk for European industry.
ASEAN countries
161. In February last year, the EPO and nine ASEAN countries signed a regional Memorandum of Co-operation that paves the way for structured regional co-operation in the ASEAN region to complement the existing bilateral relations. The co-operation programme will focus on the exchange of patent data and the re- use of EPO work products by ASEAN examiners, with the aim of speeding up the examination of pending applications from Europe.
Latin America
162. In July the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office and the EPO renewed their bilateral agreement to continue joint co-operation activities in Latin America. This agreement will enable both parties to enhance co-operation by creating synergies, implementing joint actions, and better co-ordinating our respective activities in Latin America. Its aims include improving access to and the public dissemination of Latin American patent information. The signatories of the LATIPAT MoU, namely the SPTO, WIPO and the EPO, also decided to extend the current MoU for another two years, starting January 2015, and added a new objective, namely to deepen the engagement of the heads of the Latin American IP offices in the project.
Patent documentation
163. Patent data coverage extended further in 2014. The Mexican patent office made its full-text patent collection dating from 1992 to 2012 available for uploading onto the Espacenet and LATIPAT databases, and KIPO provided its full backload of legal status information on Korean patents. Chile and Colombia decided to assess
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working with EPOQUE Net, and tests are underway as part of the new co-operation agreements with these two countries. These include an MoU on bilateral co-operation signed with Colombia in September and a data exchange agreement with Chile, which has provided its collection of bibliographic data dating from 2008 to 2012, now available on Espacenet.
164. In June the EPO and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO) signed a bilateral agreement on the Global Dossier (passive component). The purpose of this agreement is to formalise the exchange of the file wrapper information for family applications filed with each office in the public phase. This information will be made available to the general public through the EPO's Global Dossier, which was also officially launched in June, attracting great interest from industry.
165. In the Arab region, in parallel to the progress made on the validation system in Morocco and Tunisia, the ARABPAT project helped to consolidate EPO co- operation across the region, producing concrete results. A platform based on the Espacenet standard that supported right-to-left display was successfully launched in December. It currently publishes data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, and will soon include publications from the Saudi Arabian office, which decided at the end of 2014 to join the ARABPAT publication server.
B. IP5
166. The IP5 deputy heads met in Beijing on 19 and 20 March to take stock of achievements and prepare topics to be submitted to the IP5 heads in May for endorsement. The IP5 heads and industry meetings will be hosted by SIPO in Suzhou, China, on 21 and 22 May 2015. a) IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (IP5 PPH) pilot
167. The IP5 PPH pilot has been running since 6 January 2014. In the year under review the EPO continued its engagement in that area. In addition to the IP5 PPH pilot and in order to enhance simplified access for European users to accelerated prosecution elsewhere on the basis of an EPO work product, the Office set up bilateral PPH pilots with CIPO (CA), ILPO (IL), IMPI (MX) and IPOS (SG). These programmes became operational in early January 2015 and replicate the requirements and conditions applicable to the IP5 PPH and GPPH programmes. At the same time and in the interest of user-friendliness the EPO implemented the common PPH request form that was developed according to a proposal presented by SIPO in the framework of the PPH Working Group.
168. By the end of 2014 the EPO had received the following requests under the IP5 PPH pilot:
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Partner office Work product Number of requests
PCT work products 878 JPO national work products 2 128
PCT work products 31 KIPO national work products 32
PCT work products 102 SIPO national work products 35
PCT work products 172 USPTO national work products 1 605
TOTAL 4 983
169. In the course of 2015 the EPO intends to continue to pursue the use of harmonised metrics definitions in the PPH context. This is regarded as essential and a precondition for the reliable monitoring and reporting of PPH procedural statistics. b) IP5 Patent Harmonisation Experts Panel (PHEP)
170. Work on procedural patent harmonisation within the IP5 Patent Harmonisation Expert Panel (PHEP) advanced well in the course of the year under review. A major breakthrough was achieved in June 2014 when the IP5 heads agreed to start work on unity of invention, citation of prior art and written description/sufficiency of disclosure, and to give the lead on these items to the EPO and SIPO, KIPO and the USPTO, and the JPO respectively.
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171. In the last quarter of 2014 the EPO and SIPO drafted a roadmap on how to proceed with the issue of unity of invention. This roadmap involves a multi-staged approach, including the elaboration and distribution of a joint questionnaire to allow the IP5 offices to illustrate their respective unity-of-invention practice, the collection and analysis of the offices' input, and preparation for the adoption of a final report in 2015. c) IP5 Statistics Report 2013
172. In December 2014, the IP5 offices published the IP5 Statistics Report with figures for 2013 on the IP5 website. In addition to the report itself, the IP5 offices also provided detailed statistical data on numbers of filings, grants broken down by IPC codes, and fees. d) IP5 Quality Management meeting
173. The first dedicated IP5 quality session was held on the occasion of the 2014 IP5 WG3 meeting. The IP5 offices exchanged information on the quality management systems in place at their respective offices and agreed to draft an overview of the IP5 quality management systems based on a PDCA (Plan-Do- Check-Act) matrix. The future focus of the IP5 offices will be on the topics of quality metrics, quality assurance and user feedback. e) Exchange of information in unpublished phase
174. The IP5 offices started discussions on the exchange of information before expiry of the 18-month publication period with a view to sharing this data via PDX and Global Dossier. The offices considered the legal basis, impediments to sharing unpublished data, and the scope of data they could share. Though still in its early stages, the exchange of unpublished data between the IP5 offices has huge potential for the EPO as it would mean having results available when the EPO examiner starts examination. f) Global Dossier Taskforce (GDTF) meeting
175. In January the IP5 offices and regional industry groups held a very successful second GDTF meeting in Suzhou, China. At the meeting five priorities were agreed for the next stage of Global Dossier. Of the five priorities three were those decided internally by the EPO to align with European interests, namely legal status data standardisation, alerting and applicant name standardisation. The EPO will be taking the lead on the alerting topic, where it is hoped that alerting systems similar to the EPO's Register Alert can be implemented at all IP5 offices, allowing users to receive alert digests for the IP5 members of a patent family.
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C. COOPERATIVE PATENT CLASSIFICATION
176. 2014 was a prolific year for the CPC. In addition to the EPO member states already using this system (AT, DK, ES, FI, GB, GR, HU, SE), the national offices of CZ, NO and PT announced their intention to start classifying their publications in CPC in 2015.
177. During the year, examiners from the USPTO, SIPO, KIPO, INPI Brazil and Rospatent attended peer-training at the EPO on the specifics of the CPC system in their respective technical fields. Training is key to ensuring the harmonised application of the CPC across the various participating offices. Though they currently do not plan to switch to the CPC, the JPO also sent some of its examiners to the EPO, as they are gradually introducing large parts of the CPC into their own classification system.
178. In December 2014, important milestones in CPC implementation were also achieved at the Chinese, Korean and Brazilian patent offices, and the EPO has started to receive CPC classification data from them. About 11 000 Chinese patent publications bearing CPC symbols featured in SIPO's initial batch and were uploaded onto EPO's databases. This information is made available to examiners working at the EPO and 45 national offices around the world via EPOQUE and to the public at large via Espacenet. Sample files were also received from KIPO and INPI Brazil pending deliveries on a larger scale. Since 9 December 2014, INPI Brazil also prints CPC symbols on its published patent applications and granted patents, and includes CPC data in its Gazette. From now on it will be easier to access patent documentation from these offices thanks to CPC information.
179. In a similar format to last year's event, the EPO and the USPTO are organising the second annual CPC meeting, which will take place on two dates in Geneva. The event on 13 April will be for industry users and commercial providers, while the one on 15 April will be dedicated to the national offices that are using or intend to use the CPC. These meetings provide an excellent platform for exchanging views on how to further improve the CPC system, as well as for sharing experiences.
D. TRILATERAL CO-OPERATION
180. The 33rd Trilateral Conference and a trilateral user meeting hosted by the JPO took place in Yokohama on 3 and 4 March 2015. The Trilateral Offices and industry representatives from the three regions had an exchange on a variety of
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patent harmonisation topics such as the symposia on patent harmonisation held by each Trilateral Office and work on procedural patent harmonisation within the IP5 Patent Harmonisation Experts Panel (PHEP). Based on the outcome of consultation with Trilateral Industry, the Trilateral Offices discussed the results they hoped to achieve at the IP5 heads' meeting in May 2015.
E. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
181. The EPO and WIPO deputy heads formally signed the EPO-WIPO 2014 Annual Work Plan at a meeting in Geneva on 31 March 2014 and agreed on a number of important co-operation issues. This annual work plan is the second under the three-year EPO-WIPO Memorandum of Understanding concluded in 2012. The two organisations have continued to co-operate in a number of important areas, including classification, optimisation of patent processes, digital processing, international co-operation and public policy issues.
182. Benefits to EPO applicants include timelier processing of PCT applications, especially those where EPO is not the receiving Office, and exchanges of PCT search fees and search copies were investigated. Other EPO benefits include savings due to the streamlining of PCT patent procedures, and in patent information activities, and in the longer term, potentially, improvements to the PCT system. The EPO and WIPO have also been liaising on international co-operation and public policy issues.
F. STRENGTHENING THE PCT
183. Within the framework of its PCT strategy the Office continued to work hard in 2014 on strengthening the PCT by improving its service to users in relation to both tools and procedures, as well as on increasing PCT awareness.
184. As far as tools are concerned, and in line with the EPO's principle of equal service level irrespective of the applicant's chosen filing route (PCT or EP), applicants now have two further means for the online filing of international applications and subsequent documents. Launched by the Office on 2 October 2014, these are the EPO case management system (CMS) (OJ 2014, A97) and the EPO web-form filing service (OJ 2014, A98). Furthermore, thanks to the success of WIPO-EPO
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co-operation, applicants may, as from 1 November 2014, file international applications with the EPO as receiving Office via their ePCT accounts (OJ 2014, A107). The Office has also further improved the features of eOLF by allowing the online filing of PCT subsequent documents as from April 2014 (OJ 2014, A50) and the PCT Chapter II demand as from June 2014 (OJ 2014, A71). Finally, it is intended to extend the automatic debiting procedure, for deposit accounts held with the EPO, to include PCT fees in April 2015.
185. As far as procedures are concerned, 1 November 2014 was a key date for the Office. Firstly, it was the date on which applicants welcomed the entry into force of revised Rule 164 EPC (OJ 2014, A70). This amendment greatly facilitates entry into the European phase. Revised Rule 164 EPC provides the applicant with an opportunity to pay upon invitation, within a two-month period, a search fee for any invention which has not been searched by the Office in the international phase but which the applicant claims upon expiry of the time limit set in the communication under Rules 161 and 162 EPC. This opportunity is available both where a supplementary European search is to be carried out (the Office was not the (Supplementary) International Searching Authority) and where the supplementary European search is dispensed with (the Office acted as (Supplementary) International Searching Authority). The inventions for which a search fee is paid will be searched by the Office. Applicants may choose any invention searched by the Office either in the international phase, in the procedure for supplementary European search or in the procedure under amended Rule 164 EPC as the basis for further prosecution of the international application in the European phase.
186. Also since 1 November 2014, the EPO has revised its practice regarding the use of an address for correspondence in proceedings before the EPO by persons acting without a professional representative or agent (OJ 2014, A99). As a result, any applicant who selected the Office as receiving Office or International Searching Authority and who has not appointed any agent can make use of an address for correspondence irrespective of whether that applicant is a natural or legal person and whether the address is in Europe or abroad. Finally, the Office also introduced its new "PCT Direct" service on 1 November 2014.
187. As far as PCT awareness is concerned, the Office hosted the second PCT Conference in October 2014 (The Hague). More than 100 patent professionals participated in the event, which proved to be an excellent forum for the exchange of first-hand information and advice about PCT procedures, both before the EPO
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acting in each of its capacities and before other major national patent offices acting as designated or elected offices. Finally, the publication of the 8th edition of the "Euro-PCT Guide", a comprehensive source of information about the PCT procedure at the Office, is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015.
G. SUBSTANTIVE PATENT LAW HARMONISATION
188. The year 2014 saw a considerable amount of effort being invested in substantive patent law harmonisation issues around the world.
189. On 8 April 2014, the 5th Tegernsee Group meeting took place in Trieste. The Final Consolidated Report on the Tegernsee User Consultation was approved, concluding the work cycle of the Tegernsee Experts Group on the key issues of the grace period, 18-month publication, treatment of conflicting applications and prior user rights. It has since been published on the EPO's dedicated Tegernsee website, which collates all documents produced by the Tegernsee Experts Group for easy reference.
190. The Group agreed that the Final Consolidated Report would be forwarded to the chair of the Group B+ for presentation in that forum. At its plenary meeting in Geneva in September 2014, the Group B+ agreed to return to its original vocation and proceed with work on a package of SPLH issues within that multilateral forum. Upon a proposal from the chair of the Group B+, John Alty, a "B+ Sub-Group" was created to assist the chair in exploring ways to move matters forward. This sub- group is composed of delegations from the EPO and CA, DK, HU, JP, KR, ES and US, with the EPO initially acting as Secretariat. The Secretariat will rotate to Japan in the coming month. The B+ Sub-Group held its first meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, on 19 November 2014. It was decided that the sub-group would aim to promote further progress in the harmonisation process, by putting together a paper listing policy objectives and principles on the four Tegernsee topics: grace period, 18-month publication, conflicting applications and prior user rights, as well as the definition of prior art, by building wherever possible on available resources, such as the Tegernsee Final Consolidated Report. A further meeting will take place in London in April.
191. The Industry Trilateral, for its part, is working on a draft text on which it hopes to achieve consensus by March/April 2015. Should this occur, the draft would be expected to flow into the work of the sub-group, which has emphasised the importance of engaging with industry and regional and national stakeholders.
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192. In Trieste, the Tegernsee Group also decided to promote the dissemination of the results of the Tegernsee User Consultation and provide opportunities for user feedback on the perceived needs of industry in the area of substantive patent law harmonisation. A number of events were held, starting in July, when the UK IPO held round-table talks for its users in London, followed shortly by a Tegernsee symposium in Tokyo and a USPTO round-table discussion in Alexandria in November, all attended by representatives of the EPO.
193. Lastly, the EPO held its own "EPO Harmonisation Symposium: Tegernsee and Beyond", in Munich in mid-February, to which users from Europe, the US and Japan were invited, as well as delegates from offices belonging to the Tegernsee Group and the B+ Sub-Group. The intention was to allow broad dissemination and discussion of the Tegernsee results, give the participating delegations an opportunity to hear feedback from users in the various regions first-hand, promote substantive discussions between users on issues known to cause "friction" and, lastly, build a bridge between the work of the Tegernsee Group and that of the B+ Sub-Group.
XIII. UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION/UNIFIED PATENT COURT
A. UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION (UPP)
194. In 2014 the Select Committee made considerable progress in the implementation of the unitary patent. After three full readings it adopted in principle the draft rules relating to unitary patent protection, which provide the institutional and procedural framework for the unitary patent. It also laid the groundwork for the forthcoming determination of renewal fees for the unitary patent and the renewal fee distribution key for the participating EU member states. To this end the EPO presented the committee with 48 different simulations of renewal fee levels and their impact on EPO income. It also provided estimates of the administrative costs relating to the unitary patent and raw data for the distribution key, such as the number of patent applications from the participating EU member states, their GDP and the number of patent validations in each state.
195. On the basis of this information the EPO is confident that a decision on the financial issues regarding the unitary patent can be made in early summer 2015. Together with the adoption of the rules relating to unitary patent protection, this decision will conclude work on the establishment of the institutional, legal and
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financial framework within the European Patent Organisation and will allow the EPO to establish an IT system on the basis of this framework.
B. UNIFIED PATENT COURT
196. The ratification process gained increased momentum in 2014, with France, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Malta all depositing their ratification instruments in Brussels. Including Austria, this means that a total of six states have now ratified the UPC Agreement. Many other states are making good progress with their national ratification procedures and have indicated that they intend to ratify the UPC Agreement in 2015.
197. The Preparatory Committee held five meetings in 2014. It adopted a revised roadmap and discussed a variety of issues relating to the financial and legal implementation of the agreement. It also dealt with HR-related aspects such as training for candidate judges, as well as facilities and IT issues. Following the successful public consultation on the draft rules of procedure for the UPC in 2013, the Preparatory Committee conducted a hearing of user organisations on the same topic in November 2014. The 17th draft version of the rules is now available. Looking at the excellent progress made so far there is optimism that the first unitary patents could be registered in 2016.
XIV. THE EPO AND SOCIETY
A. THE EPO IN THE MEDIA
198. During 2014 the EPO continued to enjoy significant media coverage through closely co-ordinated publicity campaigns employing our website, social media, conventional print media, third-party websites and TV. Engagement with national patent offices also provided mutually beneficial returns in promoting the patent system to audiences across the member states. a) Annual report 2013
199. The most significant announcement to the media in the first quarter of 2014 was the continuing growth in filings at the EPO, up 2.9% to over 265 000. European applicants retained their share of 35% of all filings, with US and Japan also posting similar figures to last year (24% and 20% respectively). The biggest growth yet again came from Korean and Chinese applicants, up to 6% and 8% respectively. These numbers were put into a broader context, with national rankings for patent applications submitted to the EPO per million inhabitants. Compared with the usual raw data, this gave a very different picture. The presentation showed how many European countries file more patent applications per inhabitant than the
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United States, Korea or even Japan. Indeed nine of the top ten were European countries, with Switzerland in the lead by a big margin of 832 patent applications per million inhabitants. Collectively, the 28 EU member states had 128 applications per million inhabitants, equalling Korea and ahead of the US figure (107).
200. The press conference in Brussels attracted 30 journalists and generated the most press coverage ever for an EPO annual report, especially in Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, but also in Asia and the US, resulting in some 250 items in print and online media. The release of the EPO's results to the press was supported by a comprehensive section on our website with statistics, graphics, videos and a report on highlights. b) European Inventor Award
201. The ninth annual European Inventor Award ceremony took place in Berlin on 17 June 2014. The award is a great way to promote the European patent system as a whole and demonstrate its central role in technological progress, innovation, prosperity and job creation. The names of the fifteen finalists for 2014 were announced in April. These outstanding inventors came from a wide selection of countries and technical fields, optimising the "angles" in national media and the trade press. The promotional campaign culminated in the award ceremony itself in Berlin,1 attended by German Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, Heiko Maas.
202. Shortly before the award ceremony took place the Office launched its new "Innovation TV" app for smart TV, enabling viewers to enjoy films about the finalists on a big screen in high definition in the comfort of their own home. By the time the ceremony was streamed live from Berlin over smart TV, the app had already been downloaded over 25 000 times.
203. The award ceremony itself was attended by 70 journalists from many countries. On the day itself the CNN film crew was joined by German national broadcasters like ZDF, RTL and N-TV, and the BBC broadcast an interview with one of the winners live via satellite. News about some of the winners made it onto the main evening news of almost 10 national broadcasters. Thanks to media partnerships with CNN International, Handelsblatt, Les Echos, Il Sole 24 Ore, Financial Times and euronews, as well as extensive marketing of the film footage for each finalist, we generated over 215 hours of TV coverage , almost 400 print and 1 320 online articles. The online public vote – the Popular Prize – was exceptionally successful
1 The media impact of the European Inventor Award was reported in more detail in CA/88/14.
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on social media, attracting over 20 000 votes and was behind many of the 10 000 conversations or stories about the inventors on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or blogs.
204. In showing the vital importance of innovation to the struggling European economy, and the role that good patent strategies play in business success, the ninth annual European Inventor Award had the greatest impact to date. The tenth will take place in Paris on 11 June 2015.
B. EPO WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
205. The EPO website, which attracts over a million visits per month, is the gateway to key information and services provided by the Office. An additional service was added at the beginning of 2014: the online Official Journal. Replacing the old paper publication, the online Official Journal is now available in both HTML and PDF format and has a dedicated search function.
206. In June, we launched a mobile version of the website, available at m.epo.org, which is optimised for small smartphone screens. A slimmed down version of the main website, it provides access to news, legal texts and events for use on the go. In a recent survey, more than 90% of users of the mobile website rated it favourably, with more than 63% rating the site "very good" or "excellent". Towards the end of the year, as the EPO achieved ISO 9001 certification, we added a section on quality to our website, outlining the EPO's quality policy, our customer services charter, and explaining how quality is monitored and measured at the EPO.
207. The growing importance of social media continued throughout 2014, proving indispensable in the mix with more traditional PR activities. Social media not only spread EPO messages but connect with audiences in discussions on IP, patenting, inventions and innovation. Last year the EPO saw a 50% increase in its social media followers (up to 15 000 on Twitter, 20 000 on Facebook and 16 000 on LinkedIn). Our focus on creating new digital content and film materials on a variety of patent-related topics led to more than 60 000 conversations and interactions on the EPO's social networks (up from 12 000 in 2013), more than 40 000 video views on our dedicated YouTube channel ("EPO films") and more than 100 000 clicks on EPO content.
C. CLIMATE CHANGE, GREEN TECHNOLOGIES AND STANDARDS
208. The EPO and UNEP launched a report on patents and climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs) in Latin America and the Caribbean at COP20 in Lima (December 2014). The report shows that less than 3% of CCMT patent filings occur in this region, meaning that patent rights are unlikely to be a deterrent to the
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exploitation of these technologies in LAC. This report (the third of a series) is based on the classification scheme Y02/4 and promotes the EPO's patent information services such as PATSTAT. In this way, the EPO continues to inform and provide evidence for policy-makers on the role of patents in CCMT innovation and transfer (e.g. supporting European states and the EU in TRIPS Council discussions) and helping to improve the reputation of the global patent system. The study generated considerable publicity via social media and the EPO's website. The Y02 classification scheme is also used several thousand times a month by external stakeholders to search CCMT-relevant patent documents in Espacenet.
209. The EPO continues to take the lead in co-operation with standards development organisations (SDOs). This includes using key standards development documentation in its prior-art searches. An MoU with ITU was renewed, a new agreement was signed with BSI, and the text of a new working level agreement with ISO JTC1 was agreed. The EPO established good co-operation with CEN- CENELEC, including participating in their conference on standards and innovation, and liaises with the EC at regular intervals on patents and standards.
D. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PATENTS
210. In April 2014, the European Science and Advisory Board to the EPO (or "ESAB") issued a statement on the unitary patent package based on the results of workshops held in December 2013 on the unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court and an economic study on the effects of the unitary patent package. In its statement the ESAB expressed optimism and some concerns about the unitary patent package. The most significant benefits identified included the administrative simplification of patenting in Europe, the potential for saving costs, including validation, translation and post-grant administration costs, and the geographic extension of patent protection. A number of critical decisions have yet to be taken and will determine how users come to evaluate the unitary patent on a day-to-day basis. These decisions relate to unitary patent renewal fees and the cost of litigation before the Unified Patent Court.
211. The ESAB decided to examine the possible economic effects of the introduction of a grace period in Europe. A study was carried out on behalf of the ESAB by the consultancy Europe Economics and a workshop was held in November 2014 in Munich, after which a recommendation was issued. Although there was no consensus amongst the ESAB members as to whether it would be desirable for Europe to adopt a grace period as a matter of principle, it was agreed that within an international context, it would recommend considering the introduction of a grace period in Europe, but only on two conditions: that it was defined as a safety
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net and that it was internationally harmonised. In that respect, the ESAB's recommendations closely mirrored the European response received in the framework of the Tegernsee User Consultation exercise as well as feedback from participants at the ESAB workshop, who were also united in their call for harmonisation to take place on a package of issues in a multilateral forum with maximum transparency.
212. As far as the topic of patent aggregation is concerned, the Chief Economist unit carried out a qualitative survey of experts, academics and patent practitioners with the aim of collecting views on the impact of patent aggregation on competition and innovation. A summary of this survey was discussed during a workshop held in Munich on 25 November 2014. The workshop report and the ESAB statement on patent aggregation and its impact on competition and innovation are expected to be published in March/April 2015.
213. The Chief Economist unit took an active role at the IP Statistics for Decision Makers (IPSDM) conference and at meetings held in its margins. The conference and side meetings took place on 17 to 20 November in Tokyo. The chief economist gave a presentation and sat on a panel at the conference, and participated in the OECD taskforce meeting on IP statistics and the chief economists' meeting after the IPSDM conference.
XV. CONCLUDING REMARKS
214. In 2014 again the Office was able to reach all ambitious targets in terms of production and quality of the products and services it delivers. Productivity and timeliness have improved. New services have been launched, offering the users more flexibility in the management of their patent files and better and easier access to the patent information in general. The co-operation activities with the member states in particular have also been very successful, reinforcing the European Patent Network.
215. In the meantime the Office had the capacity to implement some major reforms whose principles were approved by the Administrative Council via the different roadmaps and their updates. The New Career System, after 18 months of in-depth preparation, is certainly one of the most important changes for the Office.
216. In many aspects 2014 has been a record year, as the EPO reached some all-time highs in many areas of its core business activities. More challenging were the relationship with the social partners and the implementation of the new social dialogue framework, for which more efforts will be needed in the coming years.
217. All in all, it confirms that the Efficiency and Quality strategy decided in 2011 and implemented step by step is bearing the expected fruits. and that the Office is in a much better position to face the challenges ahead and to ensure its long-term sustainability.
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XVI. RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLICATION
Yes
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