Programme

Keynote speech
Dietmar Harhoff, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich

"The strategic function of patent information" (PDF 376 KB )

Information derived from the patent systems has become one of the most important
sources of information for strategic planning and innovation management. Patent
information allows managers to obtain key insights into technological and commercial
developments effectively and quickly. The presentation briefly outlines the development
of patent information as a strategic instrument and discusses the scientific validity of a
variety of popular patent-based indicators.

Patents as a source of business information (PDF 484 KB )
Johannes Schaaf, EPO Vienna

What trends in technology will influence my products? In which markets do my
competitors protect their inventions? You can answer questions like these using
patent information. Visualising the results in charts makes them easily digestible
for decision makers. Tools exist for analysing your patent portfolio, identifying risks
and opportunities and predicting the financial impact of inventions. The presentation
will look at new approaches in this area.

The emergence of FAUT: Fully Automatic Useful Translation (PDF 523 KB )
Jaap van der Meer, T.A.U.S.

Jaap van der Meer will share his perspectives on the evolution of machine-translation,
from researchers' early attempts to produce Fully Automatic High Quality Translation
to what he calls FAUT (Fully Automatic Useful Translation). He will look at the changing
translation industry and how companies are increasingly confronted by the dilemma of
what to translate, as the number of required languages expands. 

Machine translation at the European Patent Office (PDF 829 KB )
Barrou Diallo, EPO The Hague

The patent offices of China, Japan and Korea all have machine translation systems at
different stages of maturity. The EPO is collaborating with these offices and also
implementing its own European Machine Translation Programme, focussing on
translations of patent documents from the languages of the member states into
and from English.

14.00 - 15.30

14.50 - 15.30

European patent documents: a year of changes to serve users (PDF 292 KB )
Pierre Avédikian, EPO Vienna

The change to the EPO's publication format from SGML (ST32) to XML (ST36) was an
opportunity to review several aspects of the publication policy and improve the data's
accessibility, coverage and usability. This presentation will report on the changes,
including the introduction of the applicants' cited references, and improvements to how
the data is deployed on various media.  

Open Patent Services (OPS), European Publication Web Service and MIMOSA
on-line (PDF 183 KB )
Keri Rowles, EPO Vienna

The EPO provides these three services with professional patent information users in mind.
The first two are SOAP-based web services, where the greatest benefit is commonly
achieved by integrating access directly into an application that can further process the
information. A brief overview will describe OPS, the European Publication Web Service,
and the new MIMOSA on-line service.  

esp@cenet: a year of exciting developments (PDF 424 KB )
Nigel Clarke, EPO Vienna

The most recent technical developments in the esp@cenet services will be reviewed in
this presentation, including the introduction of cited reference searching, machine-
translation tools and hyperlinks between esp@cenet and the European Patent Register.
Developments in esp@cenet in the past have often been constrained by non-technical
considerations. This presentation will give an insight into the art of the possible as some
of these constraints are removed.

Quality in, quality out (PDF 271 KB )
Peter Paris, EPO Vienna

Changes to the EPO's DOCDB database and its availability in XML have led to
improvements to data content and quality. The EPO has also effected some long-awaited
changes to the legal status data, eg the reintroduction of the notification of a publication.
The presentation will also include a review the implementation of the IPC reform on EPO
databases.

Insight - Black sheep in the patent family (PDF 380 KB )
Edlyn Simmons, Procter & Gamble U.S.

Patent families, like human families, sometimes have members that fail to meet society's
expectations. These black sheep can disrupt the patent family structure for many reasons,
including missing or incorrect claims for priority, multiple priorities, ambiguous data formats,
variations in national patent issuing procedures, inconsistent treatment by
databases and typographical errors.

The life of an EP file, from birth to search report (PDF 325 KB )
Luise Zimmermann, EPO The Hague

The talk will take the audience through a European patent application, from its arrival at the
Office, to initial processing, formal examination and publication. It will give an insight into
internal workflows and working methods, the individual steps taken and their impact on
both parties to proceedings and external users.

When is a search not a search ? Part 2- non-unity (PDF 374 KB )
Jeremy Scott, EPO The Hague

This speech deals with the criteria for unity of invention (Article 82, Rule 30, EPC), and
what happens when these are not met. What can be seen in esp@cenet ? What is David
Beckham's link to artificial grass? If Romeo and Juliet are unity, then WHO is non-unity,
and WHO is a multiple non-unity ?

Network of patent information user groups in Europe (PDF 578 KB )
Bettina de Jong, Shell International

Several patent information user groups in Europe are building up a network, to share
experiences,discuss topics relevant to all, and to support set-up of new national user
groups. This presentation gives an overview of the participating user groups, the way
they work, and the goals and activities of the network.