EPO President meets Director General of Mexico’s national office in Mexico City

From left to right: José Sánchez Pérez, Director General of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) and EPO President António Campinos 

On 14 September, the President of the European Patent Office (EPO), António Campinos, met in Mexico City with the Director General of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), José Sánchez Pérez. The meeting offered both offices an opportunity to review activities under the strategic partnership signed in 2019 and to outline future co-operation plans aimed at enhancing the accessibility of the global patent system and providing support to innovators in Europe and Mexico. They also updated each other on recent developments at their offices, including the Unitary Patent and the imminent launch of the EPO’s Observatory.

The EPO and IMPI jointly reviewed how several activities have supported IMPI in enhancing the efficiency, timeliness and quality of its patent granting process. The EPO has delivered training on the EPO’s search tool and CPC classification, with a specific focus on fast-growing and emerging technology fields. The partnership has enabled IMPI to make effective re-use of EPO work products for both national first and second filings. Further, IMPI continuously provides the EPO with patent data from one of Latin America’s most dynamic emerging economies.

Building on the impactful implementation of the previous work plan, both heads signed a new biennial work plan to enable the continuation of these co-operation activities. They also touched on possibilities to facilitate technology transfer from Europe to Latin America by creating local hubs, as well as to improve access to patent knowledge. Furthermore, the bilateral meeting provided the opportunity to launch the process of assessing the feasibility of a validation system in Mexico, which would allow users to obtain national Mexican patents via the EPO’s patent granting procedure.