The 50th anniversary of the European Patent Convention was recently celebrated at a hybrid ceremony in the Hague and Munich which was attended by the Dutch King, the European Commission President and other heads of state of EU member states.
The Convention, signed on 5 October 1973, created the European Patent Organisation and its implementing authority, the European Patent Office (EPO), and laid the foundations for the European patent system, which has fostered innovation and economic growth across Europe for the last five decades.
“The European Patent Convention has turned 50. In this legal testament lies a powerful expression of the combined aspirations of a continent desiring peace and prosperity, and united by a common vision for innovation in Europe,” said EPO President António Campinos at the ceremony.
“In the last few years, we have sought to elevate our endeavours in different areas, such as in our patent grant process, in quality, in the technologies we use, in terms of international cooperation,” he added, referring to the new streamlining Unitary Patent System (UPS) which was introduced on 1 June 2023.
Gilles Requena, chief patent research and policy offer at the EPO, told The Brussels Times that it took some years for the convention to enter into force because of the ratification process. 21 countries attended a conference in 1973 but only 16 of them signed the convention. Then they needed to ratify it. For that a threshold of 7 countries was required which took until 1977.
The EPO started its operations the following year, on 1 July 1978, in Munich. The EPO is one of the largest public service organisations in Europe, with some 6,300 staff, of whom 4,000 are working as patent examiners in all fields of technology.
Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission President, said that, “It’s only fitting that the 50th anniversary of the European Patent Convention coincides with the 30th birthday of the European single market. Patents and competitiveness are two sides of the same coin. Therefore, it’s excellent that the European Commission and the EPO work so closely together.”
“There is no better example of our outstanding cooperation than the Unitary Patent System,” she added. The new system offers a single patent, with no need to validate the patent in each country, a single renewal fee, under a single legal system and before a single Unified Patent Court, for the participating countries.
Positive experience of new system
What are the first experiences of the new system? “Our experience is very positive and the system works as planned,” Requena replied. “Initially, 17 EU member states, among them the top patent filers in Europe such as France and Germany, joined the system. Altogether, they account for around 80% of the EU's GDP.
“Since the start, more than 12,000 unitary patents have already been submitted. We expect that their share of all European patents (uptake rate) will increase from currently 17 % to 25 % by the end of this year, much quicker than in the original planning. This will depend of course on each company strategy when deciding on the geographical scope of protection of their European patents.”
Five of the top 10 requesters for Unitary Patents come from Europe, led by Siemens AG, and represent a broad variety of technology sectors, including digital communication and transport. Furthermore, many requests come from SMEs, universities and public research organisations, showing how important unitary patents are becoming for innovation in Europe.
It took 60 years for the Unitary Patent to become a reality because some issues linked to the institutional setup, language regime and costs needed to be overcome. Participation is open to further EU member states and some preparation for ratification are already undertaken. The EPO is quite confident that more member states will join the system in the coming years.
According to the Commission President, simulations suggest that the new system could generate nearly €2 billion in additional foreign direct investment into the EU. The figure comes from a study which the EPO commissioned from the University of Colorado in 2017.
Fragmented patent system
“The ‘classical” patent system was and still is very fragmented,” Requena explained. “The unitary patent system stimulates innovation by streamlining the procedures. It makes it simpler and easier for companies to protect their innovations in Europe and to capitalize on their intellectual property.”
The anniversary coincided with the launch of the Observatory of Patents and Technology. The Observatory is an integral part of the EPO and is already working and kicking since beginning of October. Its first webinar for start-ups attracted 2,400 participants from over 80 countries.
Its overall aim is to boost innovation in a global context based on the highest possible patent quality and a business friendly environment. It will serve as a forum for interaction between all stakeholders, such as start-ups and regulatory bodies, where they can discuss all topics in the patent system. Another task is extrapolating patent data for monitoring technological development.
“Patents are intellectual property and often one of the most valuable company assets, especially for startups” Requena underlined. “That’s why they need to be protected. They are also an important parameter in decisions on funding new research. The EPO processes around 200,000 patents per year and possesses huge amounts of data showing the latest technological development in all R&D fields.”
Awarded patents
Since granting the first patent in 1980, the EPO has approved over 2 million patents, modernizing and innovating industries worldwide with advancements like QR codes, vaccines, and cutting-edge automotive technologies. Asked to rank the most important patents, he replied that there are so many and it depends on what indicators we use.
In terms of celebrating innovation, he proposed to wait for the annual European Inventor Award which will take place in Malta next year. More information on the award, categories, basis and latest finalists and winners can be found here.
Below follow some examples of some of the most remarkable inventions that have been awarded the European Inventor Award in in recent years.
- Katalin Kariko was awarded the Lifetime Achievement at the European Inventor Award 2022. She was recently awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine, jointly with Drew Weissman, for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
- Patricia de Rango, Daniel Fruchart, Albin Chaise, Michel Jehan and Nataliya Skryabina were awarded not only in the Research categoryof the European Inventor Award 2023, but also obtained the Popular Prize (selected by public voting)
- Henrik Lindström and Giovanni Fili were awarded in the category of SMEs in 2021for their flexible solar cells for portable devices.
- Among the Industry category in 2019, Klaus Feichtinger and Manfred Hackl were awarded for their higher-performance plastic recycling.
- Esther Sans Takeuchi was awarded with the non-EPO Country category in 2018for her batteries to restart the heart.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
