Yesterday, the
SACEPO Working Party on Rules met online – the first of two meetings planned
for 2022 – as the EPO prepares a range of legal changes in support of the
further digital transformation of its patent grant process. The meeting saw constructive
exchanges of views between 12 high-level users representing, among others,
BusinessEurope, the epi, AIPPI, FEMIPI, FICPI and UNION-IP and members of the EPO
management and legal and technical staff.
The EPO began
by presenting a series of proposals for amendments to the EPC Implementing
Regulations, including Rules 46, 49, 50, 126, 127 and 131. These
proposals were broadly welcomed, with the SACEPO members agreeing that the EPO
needs to fully digitise its procedures. There were lively and
constructive discussions on how to best modernise the rules for presentation of
application documents and on the proposals for modifying time limits calculations
where the EPO notifies a communication.
The EPO also presented
a status report on oral proceedings by videoconference (ViCo), including the
latest statistics and a general update on acceptance and satisfaction levels. Increasingly,
users now stress the advantages of ViCo in terms of reduced environmental
impact and cost savings, as opposed to hearings in person. Constructive
exchange on further improvements of the ViCo infrastructure took place with
practical ideas shared by the user representatives.
As requested by
SACEPO members, the meeting included an exchange on possible improvements to the opposition
procedure, based on proposals made by the epi and written comments from other
members. The EPO also gave updates on its Central Fee Payment project and New
Online User Engagement programme. It then reported on recent progress made on the
Convergence of Practice Working Groups, which are currently focusing on „examination
practice for computer-implemented inventions and artificial intelligence“
and „claim drafting structure“. Lastly, there was much interest in the
ongoing preparations for the launch of the Unitary Patent and especially the
transitional measures the EPO has planned to support its early uptake.