The president of the European Patent Office (EPO), António Campinos, has said the organisation is committed to making the patent system more affordable, accessible and visible for SMEs across Europe. His comments were made at International Conference on Intellectual Property Strategy for SMEs, held in Warsaw, Poland.
Stressing the importance of SMEs to the European economy, and the positive impact that patents have on business success, Campinos noted that only 9% of SMEs in the EU own formal IP rights such as patents. “Patents have a critical role to play in turning inventions into commercial success. It’s our joint responsibility to ensure that the innovation ecosystem is accessible to everyone by fostering affordability, accessibility, and visibility,” Campinos said at the meeting.
Campinos encouraged all EU member states to join the unitary patent system, which makes it currently possible to get patent protection in up to 18 EU member states by submitting a single request to the EPO; it is anticipated that this number will rise to 25 as other states ratify the agreement on unitary patents.
He said that a recent 30% reduction in patenting fees had already saved some micro-businesses and others more than €1 million in costs, and noted that SMEs accounted for about one third of all unitary patent requests made by European applicants.
During August the UK’s Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) released a report warning that lack of overseas patent filing by UK companies, particularly SMEs, was impacting UK economic growth. The report: Innovation and Patents in the United Kingdom, calls on the UK government to take action and reverse this decline. Speaking as the report was launched, CIPA President Matt Dixon said data from the UK government’s own Intellectual Property Office has shown that 34% of patent families - a collection of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content - filed in the UK are not protected outside of this country. This is a trend that has been ongoing for some years and has major implications for UK growth: SCI has also warned that the lack of UK patent filings is a key indicator that more needs to be done to support science-based industry in the UK.
In a separate development the EPO and the European Commission’s DG Research and Innovation have signed a letter of intent that will enhance cooperation and further promote efficient management of intellectual assets. They said that this cooperation agreement lays the foundation for joint awareness campaigns, and training events to highlight the importance of intellectual asset management, and initiatives to boost the potential of SMEs and startups.
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