Wolfram FörsterFebruary 2016Principal Director Quality Management The EPO Quality Management System Commitment to excellence

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European Patent Office

6 Search GrantExaminationOpposition AppealFiling OQC CASE OQC SEMOCASE CASE Conformity Assurance in Search and Examination  in-process control  random sample of searches, all grants  Control of Nonconforming Products  capture of quality-relevant data for continual improvement OQC Operational Quality Control  random selection of files extracted from recent production workload  Q Control of Patent Administration processes & products  Nonconforming Product Procedure (NCP) Search Audit Grant Audit SEMO Search and Examination Metrics from Opposition Metrics-based quality assurance: Products and processes PIPGA PIPGA Patent Information & Post-Grant activities  Timeliness of each PIPGA core process  Accuracy and quality data of EP patents

European Patent Office 7 User Satisfaction Surveys  Search & Examination: 3 year cycle, 7000 interviews. Analyses at technical level  Patent Administration: annually, around 1500 web-interviews in 2015 Visits to Applicants  Led by DG1 staff, general and field-specific topics discussed  Opportunity for feedback to the EPO Partnership for Quality  Meetings with industry and attorney associations, all IP5 countries  Annual. Cover wide range of legal and quality-related topics Complaints  Complaints can now be filed online*. They are handled centrally by the EPO Quality Department.  Complaint statistics are an integral part of the EPO’s QMS. * Metrics-based quality assurance: User feedback Search GrantExaminationOpposition AppealFiling User Satisfaction surveys Visits to applicants Partnership for Quality meetings Complaints

European Patent Office Integrated Quality Reporting: Preparation  In Autumn, all quality-related data is collated: −a preliminary analysis is performed by PDQM −findings are discussed with DG1, Patent Administration and Patent Information 8 USS Complaints Class-OQC CASE SEMO DG1 PD1.1 External Stakeholders Patent Administration PA-OQC 1LCS KAM CAPA DQA SEMO PIPGA-OQC

European Patent Office Integrated Quality Reporting: in practice  All the quality-related data is collated into the Integrated Quality Report  Based on information in the Integrated Quality Reports, Integrated Quality Presentations are prepared. They contain key information on: −existing quality issues −new, potential quality issues  Integrated Quality Presentations are presented to: −DG1 Clusters and top management −Patent Administration units and top management −Patent Information and top management  Both products help departments Quality Action Plans for the following year 9

European Patent Office 10 Set quality objectives (President) Implement Action Plans (Operations) QMS process audits & quality KPI monitoring (Quality Management Dept.) Quality Reporting to Operations (Quality Management Dept.) Management Review of QMS (Chaired by President)

European Patent Office 11 Recruitment and training EPO Examiners and Quality “Get it right first time”

European Patent Office Recruitment  The EPO has 6892 staff from 34 countries (2014)  Minimum requirements for prospective EPO examiners: −Master’s degree (or equivalent) in physics, chemistry, engineering or natural sciences −Excellent knowledge of one official language (English, French and German) and the ability to understand the other two −Work experience in industry is considered advantageous −Citizenship of one of the 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation  In 2015, the EPO received almost job applications −127 new examiners and 40 non-examiners were recruited 12

European Patent Office Investment in development  Instructor-led, interactive, training investments for new examiners −51 days classroom training during first two years  On the job coaching for new examiners: −experienced examiners as coaches for first two years −coaches see all actions prepared by new examiners  Technical, IT and legal training throughout career −advanced examiner training, e-learning, knowledge transfer team, etc.  In 2014, 67% of staff received training  Increase in competencies and duties over time 13

European Patent Office 14 Grant, Refusal ExaminationOppositionSearch Fully-trained EPO examiners process patents end to end Classification Oral proceedings Fully trained EPO examiners carry out these tasks:

European Patent Office Impact for applicants 15  Applications are treated by the same 1 st examiner from search until grant  “Get it right first time” ethos: −aim of search: to identify earliest possible stage, all documents most relevant for subsequent prosecution −thorough written opinions: technical, legal, claim drafting −Top-up searches, but no “salami search” approach during examination −full recognition of European and EPO PCT products in the subsequent examination phase before the EPO −consequently, if ISA=EPO, no need for a European Supplementary Search

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European Patent Office Documentation  World's largest collection of documents −over 800 million records of patent and non-patent literature documents in over 120 databases −more than journals  Examiners also have access to subscription-only external databases such as chemical abstracts  Quick delivery of newly acquired data to examiner-accessible databases −one week for full text data which has been delivered in a standard format −under two days for bibliographic data 17

European Patent Office Documentation Examples Asian Prior Art  Bibliographic and, abstract and image data: The EPO has almost 100% coverage for the Chinese, Korean and Japanese patent literature  Full-Text: English language, machine translated collection: −China since 1985, Korea since 2008, Japan since 1999  the EPO actively acquires data from other countries (e.g. India) Standards documentation −EPO continues to review its SDO coverage and expand its collections −standards documentation has increased to over 2.6 million documents in 2015 (17% increase over 2014) −EPO standards citations have increased to nearly in 2015 (27% increase) 18

European Patent Office Tools  High-performance EPOQUE search tool −used by examiners in over 40 patent offices  Linkage of search results and citations. The programme “Combi” easily identifies patent documents and NPL which is be technically related to any given document and which was cited in another search report  CCD, Global Dossier: utilisation of search results from other offices  Viewer –helps examiner easily identify relevant passages of pertinent documents 19

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European Patent Office The Examining Division  Mandatory (Article 18 EPC) – central to quality at the EPO  Three members −the first examiner carries out search and examination −agreement from other members is required before grant  Same division in Oral proceedings in examination  Mandatory three person Division in opposition proceedings (Article 19 EPC) 21

European Patent Office Examiner Support 22 Examiner Coaches Examining Division Classification experts Director Formalities Officers Asian Patent Expert Group Helpdesks EPC, Guidelines, Internal Instructions, QMS

European Patent Office Product Quality Checks Examining Division DirectorCASEProduct Audit Classification Q. Control OppositionsOpposition Metrics Appeals Search Report ■■■■ Classification ■■■ Oral Proceedings ■■ Grants ■■■■■ Refusals ■■■■ Oppositions ■■■■■ 23  CASE: Conformity Assurance in Search and Examination −in-process, ensures errors are corrected before dispatch to applicant −all grants checked, random sample of searches  Product Audit: Random, in process check of search/examination products  Classification Quality Control process ensures high classification quality  Opposition Metrics: Examine root causes for partial or complete revocation Examiner Product Quality Checks

European Patent Office 24 For more information:

Wolfram FörsterOctober 26, 2015Principal Director Quality Management EPO External Quality Indicators

European Patent Office 26 EPO internet section dedicated to quality

European Patent Office Quality Indicators: User Satisfaction 27

European Patent Office Quality Indicators: Timeliness 28

European Patent Office Quality Indicators: Complaints 29 Register a complaint at:

European Patent Office 30 Quality: