PATLIB2022 conference

19 May 2022

On 12 and 13 May, the EPO held the PATLIB2022 conference online.
Organised in co-operation with the European Commission once again this year, the
event was attended via the official event platform by more than 1 300 registered
participants from 83 countries. In addition, the proceedings of the opening day
were streamed on EPO social media channels, attracting a further 2 500 viewers.

In his welcome address, EPO President António
Campinos emphasised the event’s major significance in terms of joining up support
for innovation and knowledge valorisation across Europe: „It is the
PATLIBs that will continue to play a key role in helping inventors understand
how patents, both unitary and classical, can help to grow businesses and bring innovations
to market, innovations that can help create a more sustainable world. And with
everything we see going on around us, I think we all understand that the role
of PATLIBs is more important than ever“, he said.

President Campinos went on to highlight how
patents and intellectual property (IP) rights can foster innovation that drives
company performance, supports entire economies and secures greater
sustainability, including with regard to helping achieve the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals. He also outlined how the PATLIB network will
contribute to the training of tech transfer professionals and to a new pilot
programme to extend innovation support to several African universities and
research centres in co-operation with the African Regional Intellectual
Property Organization (ARIPO), the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)
and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General for
Research and Innovation at the European Commission, celebrated the
collaboration between the two co-organisers of the conference by drawing
attention to the positive social impact that strengthening European innovation
ecosystems can have: „Increasingly, the way we look at research in Europe is
also to create value for society, helping Europe transform into a digital
continent and ensuring our green transformation. Innovation is going to be at
the heart of these two transformations. And therefore the work you are doing on
connecting knowledge, science and solutions with many investors, actors in the
economy and civil society, for them to know about these solutions, and then
effectively pick them up, deploy them: this is really what our ambition should
be.“

The conference
reflected the achievements of the PATLIB network of patent information centres
and the PATLIB 2.0 project in promoting technology transfer and IP
commercialisation. This included showcasing work with new network partners such
as the European Innovation Council (EIC). Keynote speaker and EIC Board Member
Anita Krohn Traaseth was highly enthusiastic about working together with the
EPO to identify emerging trends in the technology landscape and explore how
they impact innovators.

Other major highlights included European
Commission Director Peter Dröll chairing a panel on common values and
principles for research and innovation valorisation, including those outlined
in the European Research Area Policy Agenda 2022-2024. The EPO’s Director of
European and International Legal Affairs Michael Fröhlich then explained how
the Unitary Patent will facilitate access to patent protection for SMEs,
universities and public research institutions. He was joined by José Aguilar of
the PATLIB centre Instituto Pedro Nunes in Portugal, who illustrated the Unitary
Patent’s benefits with a start-up case study.

Further panel discussions explored how various
innovation ecosystem actors can incentivise the sharing of IP and the role of
European support programmes for innovators in fostering entrepreneurial and
financial know-how. There were also updates on the work about to begin with further
new EPO partners such as the European Institute of Innovation and Technology
(EIT) and the European Technology Transfer Offices Circle. Finally, EIC Director
Jean-David Malo joined Christoph Ernst, the EPO’s Vice-President for Legal and
International Affairs, to wrap up the event.

The EPO is delighted to welcome the
first patent information centres from two additional countries: the Industrial
Property Office of Monaco and the Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Today, the PATLIB
network
now has around 330 centres operating
across 37 countries in total.

PATLIB2022 recordings

PATLIB network

Unitary Patent

EPO and European Institute of Innovation and
Technology sign partnership agreement

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