Archive: Public consultation on the EPO's Strategic Plan 2023

Thank you for the contributions received by 10 May 2019.

The last round of consultation ran from 18 April – 10 May 2019.

• Download the draft EPO Strategic Plan

Comments on the draft of our Strategic Plan received on or before 10 May 2019 will be reviewed and considered for the final proposal of the EPO Strategic Plan.

We may publish contributions from the stakeholders on our website provided we have received their permission.

The proposal elaborated following the consultation will be submitted to the Administrative Council for adoption in June 2019.

Subsequently, the approved version will be published on our website.

Contributions received in the last consultation round

The EPO was pleased to receive 22 contributions via the web consultation, 15 of which were authorised for publication by the contributor and in line with our terms of use. These can be downloaded below.

Contributions received in the first consultation round

The EPO was pleased to receive 47 contributions via the web consultation, 32 of which were authorised for publication by the contributor. These can be downloaded below.

Terms of use

This public consultation invites comments from people or stakeholders who are interested in the EPO's Strategic Plan.

Subject to your permission, we may publish contributions on our website.

Contributions that infringe the "Terms and conditions of use for the website" (and in particular Article 9 thereof) or the following conditions will not be considered for publication:

• Contributions must be in English, French or German
• Contributions must be related to the topic of the consultation of the the EPO's Strategic Plan
• Contributions should not name individual staff members of the EPO

• Contributions should not contain personal attacks
• Contributions should not use offensive language, or contain racist, sexist or homophobic remarks
• Contributions should refrain from mentioning pending applications or revealing confidential information
• Contributions should not advertise for businesses or services
• The publication of contributions on the EPO website does not constitute an endorsement of their contents by the European Patent Organisation.

Privacy notice

Privacy statement for the public consultation on the EPO's Strategic Plan

The European Patent Office (EPO) is committed to protecting your privacy and the personal data you provide as part of our consultation. We will process personal data that you provide in accordance with our Data Protection Guidelines, which aim to ensure best practice when handling users' personal data.

What personal data will we collect?

If you participate in our public consultation, we will collect your first name, last name and email address.

Why will we collect this data?

Within the framework of its activities under the European Patent Convention, the Organisation is committed to improving continuously its services to the users of the European patent system. Consulting the public on the future EPO strategy is part of this continuous effort and the personal data collected on this occasion will help the Organisation to better serve the community of users

Who will be responsible for managing this data at the EPO?

The department responsible for managing this data will be External Communication. You can contact them by emailing website@epo.org.

Does the EPO have a designated Data Protection Officer?

Yes. You can contact them by emailing DPO@epo.org.

Who will we share your data with?

We will not share your personal data with anyone outside the EPO.

Will we use the data for automated individual decision-making, including profiling?

No, we will not use the personal data you provide for automated decision-making, including profiling.

How long will we keep your data for?

We will delete or anonymise your personal data as soon as we no longer need it to conduct the consultation, unless we are under a legal obligation to further process or to store it.

What rights do you have?

• Right of access: You have the right to ask for confirmation of whether or not we are processing your personal data and, if we are, to ask for access to that data and for information such as the purposes of the processing and the categories of personal data concerned.
• Right to correction: You have the right to ask for the correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Right to deletion: In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask for your personal data to be deleted without undue delay, for example if we no longer need it for the purposes for which we collected it or it has been processed unlawfully.
• Right to restriction of processing: In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask that we restrict the processing of your personal data, for example if you think that the personal data we are processing about you is incorrect or the processing unlawful.
• Right to object: In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, in particular if we process it without a legitimate interest or use it for marketing purposes.

To exercise any of your rights, all you have to do is write to us at website@epo.org.