EPO meets with GE Aerospace

On 28 May, the European Patent Office (EPO) met with GE Aerospace, a world-leading provider of jet engines, components and integrated systems for civil and military aircrafts. During the meeting, representatives of GE Aerospace expressed their appreciation of the EPO’s transparency in explaining how the company’s applications were handled. They also acknowledged improvements made in recent years, such as the EPO’s increased outreach and impressive interaction with users of the European patent system.

This was one of 50 such meetings the EPO will hold this year under the Quality Action Plan initiative "deepened dialogue with our users". Direct user engagement provides the EPO with valuable insights and helps to identify areas in which improvement is needed. 

Alexander Long, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel and General Counsel of Engineering at GE Aerospace, participated in an interview after the meeting. He explained how the company is “in the business of inventing the future of flight, so we strive to ensure our patents describe and capture the complete scope of the contributions that our inventors made to the art.” During the interview, EPO examiners’ thoroughness came in for praise, as did their "thoughtful inventive step statements that helped to precisely articulate the exact contribution” of each invention.

This is the fifth interview in the series “The voice of our users”. In each episode, we invite users to share their views on the EPO and our practices.

After the successful exchange, EPO and GE Aerospace agreed to maintain dialogue and organise a technical follow-up meeting to deepen discussion, including on operational topics such as the handling of AI-based applications.

About GE Aerospace

General Electric was ranked 34 among top applicants at the EPO in the Patent Index 2023, with 558 European patent applications. The multinational organisation has recently split into three separate companies: GE Vernova, GE Healthcare and GE Aerospace. The latter is active in two business areas: commercial engines and services, and defence and propulsion technologies.