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Tuesday, June 08, 2004

EPO Quality Problems?

Mr. Gregory Aharonian reports in the edition dated June 08, 2004 of his

Internet Patent News Service Newsletter

distributed via e-mail about an article recently published in

Nature:

PRESSURED STAFF 'LOSE FAITH' IN PATENT QUALITY
by Alison Abbott, Nature, 3 June 2004, 493

Examiners at the European Patent Office (EPO) are losing confidence in its ability to ensure the quality of the patents it issues, according to two separate staff surveys.

In a survey of some 1,300 patent examiners, conducted by the staff union in April, more than three-quarters agreed with the statement that productivity demands from the EPO's managers did not allow them "to enforce the quality standards set by the European Patent Convention". And 90% said that they did not have time to keep up to date with advances in their scientific fields. In a second survey of 730 examiners, done by the EPO itself, only 9% said they believed that the management was "actively involved in improving quality".

[...]

But some patent examiners privately contend that the pressure to process files encourages them to approve marginal cases, instead of formulating reasons for rejection. [...]

If these allegations should indeed be true it would be high time for organisatorical reforms within the EPO. Besides the general detrimental effects of poorly examined patents, the adversaries of the patent system, namely

FFII,

Attac, and

Greenpeace, are eager to exploit each and every weakness of the current patent practise in order to cover their weak case in arguing against the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, biotechnology inventions, and the like. Such large-scale negligence, if in fact common EPO practise, could not be afforded any further.

Moreover, it is sad to see that the

approach to install a EPO quality control division which was part of the intended EU Community Patent scheme is now to be pronounced dead due to the

failure to reach a compromise on the EU Community Patent.

And then there are more reports about quality problems with regard to the

OHIM ...

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