Key achievements: Driver 3
High-quality, timely products and services
- Quality at source
Quality is a shared journey and a shared responsibility between the EPO and its users. Clear, well-drafted applications with an appropriate scope facilitate the delivery of quality patents, bringing certainty to the market and reducing costs for all users of the patent system.
In 2025, we strengthened quality at source by enhancing digital tools that support applicants in filing and communicating with the EPO. MyEPO was expanded with new self-service features, improved access to patent and non-patent literature (including multimedia) and support for colour and greyscale drawings. Transparency and interaction were improved through enhancements to the Shared Area, while the generative AI-based Legal Interactive Platform (LIP) was rolled out to all users. The transition from eOLF to Online Filing 2.0 marked a simplification milestone, alongside further legal and procedural simplifications such as general authorisations for employees and an updated database of professional representatives.
We continued to monitor a wide range of metrics to assess the quality of incoming patent applications and their progression through search and examination. Our analysis revealed notable variations between applicants and representatives in areas such as formal errors, lack-of-unity findings, substantive objections, oral proceedings, the effectiveness of responses and amendments and grant rates. These differences can create additional costs, inefficiencies and uncertainty, highlighting the significant impact that applicant practices can have on quality at source and the overall efficiency of the PGP.
- Keeping our staff up to date with the latest changes in technology
A priority of the EPO is to ensure that examiners’ knowledge remains cutting edge by providing specific training in rapidly developing technology areas.
In September 2025, the EPO started a new initiative entitled Industry Lectures. Companies leading in their sectors provided technology lectures directly to EPO staff in an EPO-moderated online format. The focus was geared towards relevant examiners in the various technological areas; however, all events were open to all staff. This initiative seeks to inform staff about current and future technology trends with the main goal of making sure that examiners understand the latest changes in their field of technology, thereby improving quality and efficiency. Some 500 EPO staff participated in these three lectures. This initiative will continue in 2026 where we will also see collective industry lectures where multiple key players will present together on leading technologies.
We also expanded opportunities for examiners to participate in external events and engage directly with industry and academia. In 2025, more than 350 examiners attended 82 conferences and trade fairs. Beyond applying the knowledge gained, participants were also encouraged to share key learnings and insights with their colleagues through team activities or peer-to-peer activities.
- Reskilling and training
The Office provides a wide range of courses for examiners taking up new roles such as opposition or chairing oral proceedings. Staff wishing to pursue the EQE or the EPAC are also supported through training and structured exam preparation. Regular learning events were held throughout the year, covering topics such as inventive step, third-party observations, BoA case law and SQAPs findings.
Examiners who change technical fields are given support through on-the-job training from experienced colleagues and technical training courses where necessary. In 2025, a targeted technical re-skilling programme was launched in the growing field of batteries and fuel cells.
- Balancing expertise of staff with the volume of applications received in each areas of technology
We place a high priority on matching the skills and competencies of our staff in a responsive manner to changes in filing volumes across different areas of technology. Targeted recruitment supported by our established pipeline of suitable candidates has enabled us to respond in a timely manner to staffing needs in fields with rapidly increasing filing activity.
In recent years, filings of battery-related applications have increased dramatically, from around 3 000 in 2021 to almost 9 000 in 2025. In response, the EPO has more than doubled the number of examiners in this area, through a combination of recruitment and reskilling from related technical fields. In doing so, we are ensuring that we maintain our substantive quality standards, that we meet our users’ timeliness expectations and that we avoid backlogs that can increase legal uncertainty.
- Quality searches – complete and accurate and correct and consistent examination
Over the past few years, we have taken steps to build on the accuracy and completeness of searches and written options and to improve examination by ensuring that the EPC is applied in a consistent way across our examining teams, something of particular importance within emerging or fast-moving technical areas. Under our Quality Action Plan 2025 we built on this work with actions covering all stages of the PGP.
Embedding best practice of the Active Search Divisions
As 2025 commenced, with over 12 months’ experience of full implementation of the Active Search Divisions (ASD), preliminary user feedback and assessment by internal audit already indicated enhanced legal certainty at an early stage of the PGP. As a result, the drive behind integrating ASD into the PGP continued. The primary focus was placed on fostering broad, early-stage consultations within the division, initiated by the first examiner for every search file.
To underline the importance of this focus, a presentation highlighting the importance of the division and best practices was given to all directors and cascaded to the teams in December 2024. Divisions were encouraged to maintain a solution-oriented approach aimed at reaching efficient conclusions (grant or refusal). This involved identifying the potential invention early and ensuring comprehensive searches that covered all claimed features, with due regard to the description and drawings. A specific mention was also made to ensure mixed-type inventions were dealt with correctly. Whilst the 2024 quality goals already included explicit reference to ASD, the 2025 search quality goals for examiners, team managers and directors were strengthened and aligned in this regard.
The impact of the ASD is visible in our results, with 94% of searches and written opinions audited internally having no findings affecting validity and 80% of respondents to the User Satisfaction Survey 2024/2025 (USS) rating our search products as very good or good. In 2025 we also met two of our search quality KPIs and have almost met the third.
Added subject-matter
As part of the Quality Action Plan 2025, several actions were taken to improve assessment of added subject-matter. New job aids were issued to support structured and more accurate assessments and mandatory refresher training was provided to teams with DQA findings. In addition, examiners must now document their checks in their communications, to assist the work of the division and provide clarity to applicants that the check has been completed.
In November 2025, a technically qualified member of the BoA gave a presentation on added subject-matter to examiners. The presentation focussed on how to apply the strict requirement of “direct and unambiguous disclosure” within the diffuse realm of implicit disclosures. It also addressed issues such as “inextricably linked” features, intermediate generalisations, and amendments extending beyond the claim structure.
By the end of 2025, our quality audits on grants showed fewer findings on added subject matter at 4.6% of audited grants, meeting for the first time our challenging KPI target of <5% and improved from 5.9% in 2024.
Assessment of clarity
Following the Clarity Workshop with users in 2024, in 2025 we implemented several actions to strengthen clarity in the PGP. User suggestions to include positive examples of clarity in the Guidelines have led to amendments in the 2026 update. Awareness was raised among examiners on the impact of clarity in any post-grant proceedings and the importance of addressing it as part of the PGP. In addition, new quality objectives for 2025 were introduced to encourage examiners to assess clarity with a “mind willing to understand”, to explain clearly what is unclear and why, and propose solutions where possible. In parallel, examiner training materials were reviewed and updated, and the EPO is monitoring the correctness and consistency of clarity objections through quality audits, SQAP findings and the practice harmonisation dashboard.
Learning from BoA outcomes
BoA decisions offer a rich source of learning for examining and opposition divisions. In this context, an in-depth analysis of BoA decisions was undertaken with the dual aims of creating enhanced input for continual improvement and developing new KPIs to help track progress. In March 2025, five new KPIs based on BoA outcomes were added to the Quality Dashboard15 for examination and opposition. These KPIs are updated annually and two of the new KPIs have already been met
One area identified for improvement was the application of the problem-solution approach in the assessment of inventive step. To address this, a workshop on inventive step for all opposition examiners took place in June 2025. This included a discussion of BoA decisions that set aside the decision of the opposition division.
Third-party observations
Following user feedback, a comprehensive study in 2024 identified areas to improve the consistency of the EPO’s handling of third-party observations (TPO). Targeted actions were implemented, including clearer guidance, enhanced training and improved internal checks. These measures continued through 2025, with an interim study showing improvements already in mid-2025. Consistency in handling TPOs remains a focus in our Quality Action Plan 2026 and a review study will further assess the impact of our actions.
15 https://www.epo.org/en/about-us/services-and-activities/quality/quality-dashboard
- Timeliness: bringing certainty to the market
Timeliness continues to be an important aspect of quality and legal certainty as highlighted in the USS and also in numerous meetings with users. Overall, 82.6% of search, examination and opposition standard files were produced on time in 2025.
Figure 7 – Search timeliness
Our users need to receive EPO searches and written opinions on time. This is especially the case for first filings because for these applications, applicants must decide on their next steps before the priority year expires.
In 2025 we took several steps towards our SP2028 ambition of all searches being completed within six months. This work started in 2022 when we shortened the time for delivery of results to our member states for national searches and delivery of search results on PCT first filings from nine to eight months, and then from eight to seven months in 2023. In November 2025 the time for national searches was further reduced to six months for second filings (EP, PCT and National). At the end of 2024 we also reduced our target for PCT BIS searches (where the EPO did not conduct the search under the PCT) from ten months to eight months, which resulted in extra searches being carried out in the summer of 2025.
As we continue to tighten our search timeliness targets and work towards six months for all searches, it becomes more and more challenging to achieve our ambition of 90% of searches on time. Search timeliness (standard cases16) further improved from 85.1% on time at the end of 2024 to 86.8% at the end of 2025, with a mean duration of 5.1 months, though we did not achieve our target of 90%.
In 2026 and under our SP2028 timeliness of search will be an ongoing focus for us, as we harmonise our target for all search products at six months on a step-by-step basis.
The timeliness of the receiving section in 2025 was above 98.9% of tasks completed on time. In the case of opposition, the handling of new cases was on time for 99.1% of the tasks.
Figure 8 – Examination timeliness
Examination timeliness is also an important element of our quality policy as delays in the process can cause unnecessary costs and uncertainty for competitors and society. In 2025, 75.8% of standard cases17 were finalised within the 36-month target starting from the valid examination request, with a mean duration of examination of 24.2 months. For accelerated examination requests (PACE), the timeliness of combined first and further actions was 2.2 months.
In 2025, we managed to keep the number of old files under control. We finished the year with only 6 244 old examination files pending with a valid examination request from before 2020 that could be processed by examiners (i.e. not awaiting applicants' action) and there were around 12 500 actions pending in examination without examiner action for more than 30 months. Overall, our processing time from filing to grant in 2025 was 36.5 months for standard cases18, with 74.8% of such cases being completed end-to-end within 48 months (78.5% within 48 months for divisional applications).
Figure 9 – Opposition timeliness
In 2025, we managed to reduce further the opposition stock down to a low level of 3 335 pending files, significantly less than the pre-pandemic number of 5 000. As a result of our efforts in this area the overall mean duration is now at 19.1 months, and 51.6% of standard cases19 were completed within 18 months, a clear improvement compared to 38.4% in 2024 with a commitment to achieving our target of 70% on time by the end of 2026.
Divisionals
Divisional applications are carefully monitored by the EPO. In recent years, the trend for voluntary divisional applications has remained stable at 86% of all divisional applications filed and the volume of divisional applications is also stable at 6.3% of total stock. SP2028 defines stringent criteria to ensure that divisional applications are dealt with in a timely way.
In compliance with these requirements, in 2025 the EPO’s end-to-end timeliness of divisional applications remained at almost 78.5% (reflecting the percentage of standard cases granted within 48 months of request for an EP, see above).
Additionally, the EPO had already implemented measures to ensure swift processing and legal certainty of divisional applications in the past, including:
- The option to summon to oral proceedings as first action where the parent application was refused or withdrawn, since 2023.
- Early publication of the divisional application since 2023.
Generation-specific fee introduced as prevention for sequences of divisional applications since 2014.
These measures are proving effective, with the processing time from date of receipt to finalisation consolidating the positive trend of the previous year.
16 Standard searches exclude (1) non-unity, (2) unclear and (3) incomplete cases.
17 Standard examinations exclude cases with (1) more than one request for extension to reply, (2) more than one late fee payment and (3) rescheduling of oral proceedings.
18 Standard cases are applications with a standard examination – for EP direct: time to grant from European filing date/for PCT: time to grant from entry into the European phase
19 Standard oppositions exclude cases with (1) multiple opponents, (2) legal members to take evidence and (3) rescheduling of oral proceedings or multiple oral proceedings taking place- Listening to our users
As part of our outreach programme, 130 meetings took place in 2025 with representatives from 45 SMEs and micro-entities, 42 user associations, 26 larger corporations and 17 universities and public research organisations. This ensured that perspectives from applicants of all sizes and from all sectors were heard and reflected in our quality work, with an increasing focus on smaller applicants and educational and research institutions.
In addition to raising awareness about the Unitary Patent, micro-entity fee reductions and other important topics patent quality, harmonisation and consistency were recurrent themes in discussions with users in 2025. In response, the Quality Action Plan 2026 included intensified harmonisation efforts in key areas such as computer implemented inventions (CII) and AI.
We have also shared some of the feedback externally in the “Voice of our Users” series where short videos are prepared on the outcome of the individual meetings.
These initiatives will continue in 2026.
- Directorate Quality Audit (DQA)
DQA continued to report its independent quality audit findings. DQA reports provide the necessary statistics and selected KPIs to allow accurate and independent monitoring to support quality management. The auditors verify compliance of sampled examiner products against the respective regulations.
At grant stage, the proportion of files with no audit findings affecting validity reached 88.8 % in 2025. Added-subject matter findings reduced from 5.9% in 2024 to 4.6% in 2025 – meeting our KPI for the first time.
Figure 10 – Grant: Quality audit findings
At search stage, the share of files without any audit findings remained high in 2025, with consistently low levels of findings related to novelty and inventive step. The results confirm the continued high quality and stability of search and written opinions, with 94% of audited search files showing no findings affecting validity.
In light of this consistently high quality, search reporting has moved from a 12‑month to a 24‑month rolling period, allowing for a more proportionate audit approach. As 2024 results were reported over a 12‑month period, direct numerical comparison should therefore be made with caution.
Figure 11 – Search: Quality audit findings
Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAPs)
It is important to assess quality through multiple lenses. The SQAPs were established at the EPO in 2019 and continue to evolve in response to user feedback.
Each year the EPO holds one session on search reports and written opinions, and another on grants, ensuring the panels assess our core products annually. These are complemented by a third session which offers additional insights into another stage of the PGP. In 2023 we focused on intermediate communications and in 2024 the first-ever session on refusals took place. In 2025 we held the first-ever SQAPs session dedicated to oppositions.
The findings were presented to the SACEPO Working Party on Quality, as well as to examiners and their managers. They are also published in the quality report. Highly rated cases are being used to promote best practices, while areas for improvement are being addressed through the Quality Action Plan 2026.
- Demand for our services
Although we received 1.2% fewer requests for searches than in 2024 (76% of them second filings), demand for EPO products and services remained high in 2025.
In terms of examination workload, 177 960 applications entered the European examination phase, with a further 4 519 entering PCT Ch.II, bringing our total incoming workload to 443 352 patent products (searches/written opinions, examinations and oppositions) during the year.
- Driver 3 key performance indicators
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Under the driver High-quality, timely products and services, KPIs continued to show steady progress in 2025.
Timeliness KPIs presented overall positive developments, with timeliness of examination and prior art classification remaining above their SP2028 targets. Notably, timeliness of oppositions improved significantly, rising from 38.1% to 51.6% of oppositions completed within 18 months. Minor declines were recorded in the timeliness of divisional applications and timeliness of examinations, which contributed to the modest overall decrease in the end-to-end patent grant timeliness.
Quality of formalities KPIs have advanced substantially, surpassing their 90% SP2028 targets. Compliance reached 96.8% in operational control checks performed in the receiving section and 93.3% in the checks carried out in the opposition section.
The EPO’s commitment to quality continued to translate into improved performance across search, examination and grant products. Focusing on the quality of our search, the accuracy of search and written opinion and of prior art found showed further progress. In particular, the share of audited files with incorrect assessment of novelty or inventive step registered a notable decrease, from 6.2% to 5%, moving closer to the SP2028 target. For grants, findings on added subject-matter have progressively reduced over the year, resulting in this KPI meeting its target.
Reflecting this strong focus on product and service quality, the 2025 USS results indicate a consistently high level of satisfaction. Ratings for examination products increased to 79% of users satisfied, approaching the 80% target. Satisfaction with online services was 80% and search products remained stable at 80%. These findings are in line with feedback obtained from other sources and suggestions for improvement have been taken forward in the Quality Action Plan 2025.
Striving for high-quality examination and grant products also reinforces our aim of reducing the number of contested decisions between the opposition division and the BoA. Most notably, two of the related KPIs have already reached their target: 1.9% of decisions of the Board to maintain a patent, which sets aside an opposition to revoke a patent; and 2.9% of decisions of the Board to revoke a patent based on lack of novelty. Moreover, in 4.3% of ex parte cases, the Boards set aside a decision of the examining division to refuse a patent, approaching the target.
20 The SP2028 target of Timeliness of examination increased from 70% to 75% in 2026.
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