CA/44/17 Orig.: en Munich, 24.02.2017 SUBJECT: President's activities report SUBMITTED BY: President of the European Patent Office ADDRESSEES: Administrative Council (for information) CA/44/17 e LT 170312 - I - TABLE OF CONTENTS Subject Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. DG1 WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION 1 a) Filings 1 b) Efficiency 2 c) Publications 4 d) Time to delivery of the search products 4 e) Time to publication of the patent 5 III. MEASURES TAKEN IN DG1 TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE, QUALITY AND SERVICE 8 A. EXAMINER RECRUITMENT IN 2016 8 B. "ESPRIT DE SERVICE" 8 a) "Esprit de service" | "VICO for Oral Proceedings" 8 b) "Esprit de service" | Customer relationship Management (CRM) 9 c) "Esprit de service" | Praktika Extern 2016" 10 d) "Esprit de service" | 1LCS 11 C. CAREER PATH AND REORGANISATION 11 a) Examiner Career: Team Managers and Senior Expert Examiners 11 b) Performance Management 12 c) DG1 Quality Action Plan 13 d) Harmonisation activities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) area 17 D. PROCEDURES 18 a) Early Certainty from Search (ECFS) 18 b) Extension of Early Certainty (Examination and Opposition) 20 c) PCT Direct 23 d) Guidelines for Examination at the European Patent Office 23 e) Amended Rules 51 and 162 EPC as of 01.01.2017 23 E. CLASSIFICATION 24 a) Training activities for the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) 24 b) Quality measures in the CPC 25 c) The benefits of the CPC for the EPO 25 CA/44/17 e LT 170312 - II - IV. IT AND AUTOMATION PROJECTS 27 A. ITR – DELIVERIES FOR EXAMINERS 27 B. ITR – OTHER DELIVERIES 28 C. OTHER AUTOMATION DELIVERIES 29 a) Patent Grant Program 29 b) Knowledge Management and Search Program 30 c) Corporate Area 31 d) Security and Infrastructure 32 D. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AUTOMATION 32 V. BUILDINGS AND PROCUREMENT 33 A. SECURITY 33 B. NEW MAIN THE HAGUE 33 C. OTHER BUILDING PROJECTS 34 D. PROCUREMENT 34 VI. QUALITY 35 A. QUALITY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND INDICATORS 35 B. USER CONSULTATIONS AND SURVEYS 36 VII. HUMAN RESOURCES 37 A. TALENT ACQUISITION AND CAREER DEVELOPMENTS 37 a) Examiner recruitment 37 b) Team manager 38 c) Senior Expert 38 B. WELL-BEING, HEALTH AND SAFETY TRENDS AND OSHRA FOLLOW-UP 39 C. CONFLICT RESOLUTION 41 a) Management review Requests 41 b) Internal Appeals 41 c) Complaints to ILOAT 42 d) Interpersonal conflicts resolution 42 CA/44/17 e LT 170312 - III - D. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SALARY MASS: REWARD EXERCISE 2016 AND ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT OF SALARY SCALES 43 a) Reward exercise 2016 43 b) Adjustment of salary scales 44 E. SOCIAL INITIATIVES 44 a) Social dialogue / MoU with trade unions 44 b) Review exercise and follow-up discussions 45 VIII. EPN 46 A. CO-OPERATION WITH MEMBER STATES 46 B. EUROPEAN PATENT ACADEMY 48 a) Institutional Strengthening 48 b) Judicial Training 49 c) Innovation Support 49 d) Professional representatives 50 e) Academia 50 f) e-learning 51 C. CO-OPERATION WITH EUIPO 51 D. REPRESENTATION BEFORE THE EPO 52 E. EUROPEAN PATENT REGISTER 53 F. PATENT INFORMATION 54 IX. EPO AS A GLOBAL PLAYER 55 A. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS 55 B. BILATERAL RELATIONS 55 a) Validation System 55 b) Technical Co-operation 56 C. IP5 COOPERATION 57 a) Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) 58 b) Patent Harmonisation Expert Panel (PHEP) 58 D. TRILATERAL COOPERATION 59 E. STRENGTHENING THE PCT 59 F. SUBSTANTIVE PATENT LAW HARMONISATION 60 G. CO-OPERATION WITH WIPO 61 CA/44/17 e LT 170312 - IV - X. UNITARY PATENT / UNIFIED PATENT COURT 61 A. UNITARY PATENT 61 B. UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) 62 C. UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION DIVISION 62 XI. EPO AND THE SOCIETY 63 A. ANNUAL REPORT 2015 63 B. EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 64 C. EPO-EUIPO STUDY ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF IP 66 D. CLIMATE CHANGE, GREEN TECHNOLOGIES AND BIOTECHNOLOGIES 66 XII. CONCLUDING REMARKS 66 XIII. RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLICATION 67 CA/44/17 e LT 170312 I. INTRODUCTION 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 2016. II. DG1 WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION Production in 2016 has been 8.5% higher than in 2015, with 31 171 additional finalised products. The search output has slightly increased by 3% and full depletion of the search backlog is foreseen for end of 2017. In parallel, the examination output rose by 19%. The search output increase and the continuous increase of the examination output confirms that the Early Certainty strategy is now being extended from Search to Examination. In January 2017 the production was 12% above the same period in 2016 At the end of 2016, compared to end 2015, the search stock had decreased by 24% and the examination stock had also started to decrease (-0.6%). The pending workload decreased from 16.9 months of work at the end of 2015 to 14.6 months of work at the end of 2016. a) Filings After the high number of applications filed at the EPO in 2015 partially caused by the effect of the American Inventor Act implemented in 2013 at the USPTO, which led to a substantial increase of PCT applications from the US in the following years, the filing figure shows a healthy development in 2016. So far, 159 228 European patent applications (European direct applications filed in 2016 and PCT applications entering the European regional phase in 2016) were recorded. This represents a temporary 0.5% decrease over the corresponding figure of 2015. It is expected that a total of 159 350 applications will be filed in 2016 which means a consolidation of the high figure of 2015. Provisionally, the number of EP patent filings including international PCT filings amounted to 296 811 , 8.2% above the corresponding figure for 2015, mainly driven by Chinese applicants. CA/44/17 e 1/67 LT 170312 EPO Applications Budget 160 022 155 200 152 703 148 027 150 000 125 000 100 000 Situation at 31-01-17 159 228 75 000 -0.5% 50 000 25 000 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 In 2016, the Office received 222 819 search requests (+0.6%) as well as 143 737 requests for European examination (-1.5%). This represents a slight decrease of 0.3% in the workload compared to the same period of 2015. Provisionally, in 2016, the share of the EPO as ISA was 34.3% (36.5% for the whole of 2015). b) Efficiency In the framework of the Quality/Efficiency strategy, it is the goal of the Office 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 whereby the number of Full Time Equivalent employees has decreased while the number of Products produced by each FTE is increasing, a clear marker of the improved efficiency of the office. CA/44/17 e 2/67 LT 170312 Paid man years Products per FTE (FTE) 7 000 62 61.9 6 900 60 6 800 58 56.5 6 700 56 6 600 54 6 500 6 571 52 6 400 6 526 6 472 6 455 6 436 6 429 6 401 50 6 300 49.8 49.0 48 6 200 48.4 47.7 46 6 100 46.4 6 000 44 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Paid man years, FTE SEO Products / FTE The examiners' output reached 395 910 search, examination and opposition products, 8.5% above the 2015 figures. DG1 has continued its "focus on core" efforts with the aim to concentrate a maximum of resources on search, examination and opposition work. This means that investments requiring examiner resources have been carefully considered, and where possible the time neutral system of "paid work packages" has been used. In 2016, this system of paid work packages represented 910 days of examiner time saved and dedicated to core production activities. This careful investment policy in terms of non-core activities, together with the continued reduction of sick leave and unpaid capacity, and optimised internal resource management, have allowed DG1 to further increase its capacity for core examination work: the actual available time per examiner -for core examination work- has increased by nearly 10% during the last 3 years. Having more available examiner capacity means a higher production per head which explains a big part of the progress made in terms of production in 2015 and 2016. Important to realise in this context is that the time available for internal development measures and quality management has not decreased! As such, we have built a solid foundation for a more effective production environment whilst safeguarding our high quality standards for the future. CA/44/17 e 3/67 LT 170312 c) Publications The number of published patents in 2016 is 95 936. It represents 40% more publications than in 2015. The high level of examination production in the second half of 2016 allows to forecast at least a similar level of publications for 2017. EPO Published Patents 95 940 +40% 100 000 90 000 Budget 80 000 69 700 68 421 66 708 64 613 70 000 60 000 50 000 40 000 30 000 20 000 10 000 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 d) Time to delivery of the search products The successful Early Certainty for Search (ECfS) strategy results in a search stock lower than six months of work with a median timeliness achievement of 5.1 months from the date of receipt.