Sub Navigation
Search and examination
Every two years, in various technical fields, the EPO runs the survey on search and examination services.
Objectives
- measure satisfaction with the EPO's search and examination services in various technical fields,
- provide input to review quality and efficiency of internal processes in search and examination taking into account the specificities of various technical fields.
Methodology
The EPO draws a random sample of application numbers and creates a list of potential survey respondents. This list is then passed to the contractor for performing the survey.
The survey runs in the form of telephone interviews which take about 25 minutes.
The survey includes questions to be covering the respondent's experience of working with the EPO in the previous 12 months. A group of questions are also included which relate to the user's experience of working with the EPO on one specific application. This application is one which has been recently searched and which belongs to the specific technical area (joint cluster) being surveyed. Once the survey has been completed the contractor reports the results to the EPO. Data are grouped and analysed only on a statistical basis.
Aggregated results are reported to the senior management and as summary statistics are reported to the directors and staff of the technical areas concerned.
Frequency
One survey every two years for each technical field.
More information
For further information, please contact usersurveys@epo.org
Read about the "Future patent filings" survey
Read about the "Online Services" survey