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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

EPO Patent Examiners on Strike Again.

Earlier this year I had

reported on a strike day of the Examiners of the

European Patent Office (EPO). It looks as if the struggle goes on. Heise Newsticker

reports [in German only, sorry] that many Examiners in the Munich premises are on strike today. The Examiners appear not to be prepared at accept a a performance assessment programme "Productivity Assessment for Examiners" or "PAX" for short imposed by the EPO management.

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European Patent Office

[UPDATE 2006-10-25 21:00]

EUObserver.com brings a

report written by Ms. Helena Spongenberg:

"[...] EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - The European Patent Office went on a one-day strike over disagreement on a 'quality or quantity' issue at a time when patent applications are increasing and becoming more complex.

Patent examiners at the Munich-based patent office (EPO) held a staff rally on Wednesday (25 October) due to concerns over the implementation of a new system in 2007 to assess the work of the examiners.

The EPO management wants better results and the patent examiners fear that quantity will reign over quality in the new system.

'The essential issue is, how can we better secure quality in patents,' said EPO spokesman Rainer Osterwalder. `There is a difference in opinions between the management and patent examiners [on this].'

The concern comes at a time when Europe is facing a surge of patent applications from third country companies trying to protect their inventions on the European market.

'There is clearly a surge in patent applications from non-member states,' Mr Osterwalder told EUobserver, adding that the divide is currently 50-50.

'Especially South Korea, China and India are getting very active in applying,' he said. 'The big wave still seems to be coming, but it is starting now.' [...]"

So, it is very interesting to hear that South Korea, China and India eventually are in the process of reaching an acceptable standard of patent acceptance. Perhaps the EPO should do more on recruiting Examiners.

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