OECD

Introduction

The intellectual property offices of countries that are not member states of the European Patent Organisation benefit from the EPO's technical co-operation activities. For example, the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand IP Offices have been given access to the EPO's search system, EPOQUE, via a communications network called Patnet. The service, known as EPOQUENet, enables these offices to improve the quality of their prior art searches and, consequently, of the patents they grant. Indeed, EPOQUENet has now become the search system of choice in both Canada and Australia.

Australia

IP Australia was given full production access to EPOQUENet services in May 2008 and now has some 358 activated licenses allowing access to all of its examiners. Co-operation concerning the use of EPOQUENet has now been extended to include a pilot study on the mutual benefit of IP Australia using the European Patent Classification scheme (ECLA).

Canada

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) received full production access to EPOQUENet in January 2009; it now serves all of its examiners with some 368 activated licenses.

New Zealand

In February 2010 the IP Office New Zealand (IPONZ) received test access to EPOQUENet with five licenses for training purposes.