Article 46

EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE

Information from the EPO

Limit reached for participation in the IP5 collaborative search and examination pilot with the EPO as main International Searching Authority

1. On 1 July 2018, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the National Intellectual Property Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNIPA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – referred to jointly as the IP5 offices – launched the operational phase of the third pilot project on PCT collaborative search and examination (CS&E) (hereinafter "the pilot").

2. Each office acting as main International Searching Authority (ISA) committed to accepting up to 50 international applications in the first year of the operational phase (July 2018 to June 2019) and up to 50 more in the second (July 2019 to June 2020) (see OJ EPO 2018, A47 and A95, and OJ EPO 2019, A65).

3. The EPO acting as main ISA is pleased to announce that it reached the limit of 100 international applications for the pilot on 6 April 2020. As a result, the EPO is no longer accepting requests to participate in the pilot. Of the 100 applications accepted by the EPO, 85 were in English, 13 in German and 2 in French, with the USPTO acting as receiving Office (RO) for 41 of these files, the EPO as RO for 32, the International Bureau of WIPO as RO for 22 and the JPO as RO for 5.

4. The EPO and the other IP5 offices will make general information on the outcome of the pilot available at a later stage. The pilot is now entering an evaluation phase in which all IP5 offices will assess the entry of international applications processed collaboratively into their respective national or regional phases. Pilot participants will also be asked to give feedback on their experience and expectations in a survey.