1. Patent Offices and SDOs cooperation
Status 2015
Michel Goudelis, Ged Owens
EPO

2. Standards documents available for EPO examination
Memorandums of Understanding, and similar agreements in place with:
ETSI
ITU
IEEE-SA
WorldDMB
BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik)
Standards and contributions from:
3GPP
IETF
OMA
DVB
MPEG
JPEG

3. Actual EPO standards databases
Current facts:
11 Active standards databases in EPOQUE
5 databases in the pipeline
Total documents 2,28 Million in 2014 (1.8 million in 2013 )
citations in search and examination in 2014
Up to 60% of search reports in key fields (Wireless Networks, Audio Video Media) contain standards documents as pertinent for the patent examination
Future plans:
3 further Standards databases foreseen in Telecommunications, Computers and Audio Video  

4. Citation of standards documents by EPO Examiners

5. Number documents present in the standards databases and available to EPO Examiners

6. Achievements
EPO has clarified the legal status of standards documents in patent examination with most important SDOs
EPO has pioneered the use of standards documents as prior art among patent offices, and has the most comprehensive collection in its internal databases
Key SDOs, in cooperation with EPO, considerably enhance patent transparency around SEPs by linking SEP declaration databases to EPO public databases, providing up-to-date information on:
validity of application,
scope of granted patents,
patent family, etc.
Agreements and cooperation between EPO and SDOs constantly increasing

7. Actual EPO standards databases
Existing trends:
“Computer implemented inventions” now a substantial proportion of inventions in all technical areas
Telematics, smart grids (transport, buildings, cities), eHealth...
“Convergence” of technologies with ICT
Patents and standards essential in more technical fields
Future plans:
EPO cooperating with further SDOs, including CEN-CENELEC, to promote and educate on potential synergy of patents and standards
EPO liaising with SDOs to improve patent transparency, and interactions and synergy of these key innovation support systems