Mr Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie on 'The Quality...

Mr Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie is a Senior Research Fellow at Bruegel and Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM), where he holds the Solvay S.A. Chair of Innovation. He joined Bruegel in December 2007. Mr Bruno van Pottelsberghe was Chief Economist at the European Patent Office from November 2005 to the end of 2007.

Mr van Pottelsberghe recently has published a first draft version of a paper titled The quality factor in patent systems. He concludes:

"This paper puts forward a new methodology that aims at comparing quality across patent systems. Quality is defined as the extent to which patent offices comply with the legal standards that rule patentability conditions (novelty, inventiveness, transparency). The methodology consists in a two-layer analytical framework composed of "legal standards" and their "operational design". Operational designs include several elements that frame the rigour and transparency of the filtering processes. The in-depth analysis of these two layers for the patent offices of the USA (USPTO), Japan (JPO) and Europe (EPO) lead to the following conclusions. The operational designs’ components are interdependent and form a coherent system. This systemic approach underlines that if legal standards are similar across countries, their operational design are heterogeneous. The empirical evidence suggests that the EPO provides higher quality services than the USPTO, the JPO being in an intermediate position. These differences call for a multi-faceted convergence of patent systems before worldwide mutual recognition and worksharing practices are to be put in place."

For sure his former colleagues at the EPO will be flattered to read this. Mr van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie explicitly has encouraged comments on his paper.

When suggesting to set up a multi-faceted convergence of patent systems before worldwide mutual recognition and worksharing practices are to be put in place there appears to be some parallelism with leaving EPO President Ms Brimelow who said some time ago that it might be all the better if substantive patent law harmonization - perhaps rendered more attractive by work-sharing arrangements which would maximize the efficiency gains that harmonization might bring - occurred after the infrastructure for dealing with another potential growth spurt had been set up, rather than before.