EPC 2000 - Has it made any difference?

A review of the EPO's own figures on the impact of the changes under EPC 2000.

Recent publications by the EPO include the Annual Report for 2007, the Annual Case Law Review for 2007 and the latest Patent Information News. The latter document includes the first review of applicant behaviour since EPC 2000 came into force and considers the first 22,645 applications filed under the revised Convention.

Under EPC 2000 an applicant may refer back to an earlier application rather than submitting the full description on filing. 104 such applications were filed during this period, over 80% being divisional application. For divisional applications it is no longer necessary to file a copy or translation of the parent as these are already available to the EPO.

To date, five applicants have taken of advantage of the ability to file a late claim to priority under EPC 2000.

By the end of April 2008, 43 patent proprietors had applied for central limitation of their patent and six of these requests were made during the opposition period. There have so far been 12 applications for central revocation.

Since EPC 2000 entered into force, there have been two applications filed for petition for review by the Enlarged Board of Appeal.

The Annual Report for 2007 showed that, although the number of applications rose during the year, the number granted by the EPO fell. In 2007, 78,606 European applications were made via the PCT and there were 62,119 direct European filings, an overall increase in European applications of 3.9% compared with 2006. During the year, 54,699 patents were granted, 12.9% fewer than during the previous year. The EPO president, Alison Brimelow said that this was due to the EPO focusing more on the quality rather than the quantity of the patents that they grant.

Within Europe, the largest number of applications filed originated in Germany with 24,806, compared with 4,722 cases in the UK. Outside Europe most applications originated in the US (35,588), Japan (22,867), Korea (4,934), Canada (2,074), China (1,145), Israel (1,039) and Australia (1,000).

Of the European patents granted in 2007, 11,933 originated in Germany (equivalent to 145 per million inhabitants), 3,980 in France (62.8 per million inhabitants) and 1,912 in the UK (31.4 per million inhabitants). However each of the UK, France and Germany was designated as a contracting state in over 50,000 of the patents granted. Of those patents granted to non-European applicants, 10,,50 originated in Japan and 12 508 in the US.

In 2007, 3,293 oppositions were filed, and 2,085 oppositions were settled.

The special edition of the Official Journal giving detailing the activities of the Boards of Appeal has also recently published.

The Boards of Appeal received 2,090 technical appeals during 2007 and 1,661 cases were settled during the year. Of the new cases, 43.7% related to ex-parte proceedings, 54.4% to inter-partes proceedings and the remaining 1.9% were protests under the PCT.

According to subject matter, 13.1% of new appeals were physical, 20% electrical, 34.2% chemical and 32.7% mechanical. However the majority of physical and electrical cases related to ex-parte proceedings (76% and 83% respectively); whereas most chemical and mechanical cases related to opposition proceedings (68% and 75%).

The Legal Board of Appeal settled 21 cases in 2007 and received 15 new cases. The Enlarged Board settled three cases and received two new cases.