EPO meets with Philips

On 28 November, the European Patent Office (EPO) met with Philips, a global leader in health technology. EPO Vice-President Steve Rowan chaired the exchange with the delegation from Philips, which was led by Head of Intellectual Property Licensing Jako Eleveld and included five representatives from the company’s IP department.

The meeting was part of the EPO’s Quality Action Plan 2024 initiative to deepen dialogue with users. Philips praised the EPO as “the benchmark” when it comes to patenting authorities and emphasised the high quality of the European search report as being instrumental in shaping the company’s filing strategy. The delegation also provided positive feedback on the development of MyEPO, noting the online user services’ enhanced usability and valuable new features.

Representatives of Philips identified areas where the EPO could improve too, including  unexpected clarity objections, the overly formalistic handling of some applications and amendments, and the harmonisation of how patent applications are handled across technology fields. These observations, along with others collected via the EPO's many feedback channels, will be used to finalise the Quality Action Plan 2025.

The discussion also touched on Philips' use of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) route with the EPO as international searching authority (ISA) and the company’s strong involvement in PCT Direct filings, with Philips accounting for approximately 10% of all such filings at the EPO. The company is also an active participant in the Unitary Patent system, with 187 Unitary Patents registered to date.

In an interview recorded after the meeting, Jako Eleveld expressed his appreciation for the open exchange and the EPO’s willingness to listen carefully to feedback and act upon it. He also highlighted the shared consensus on the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court as “very important instruments for improving the EU internal market.”

This is the seventh 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.

The meeting concluded with a mutual commitment to ongoing dialogue and continued collaboration. Finally, Steve Rowan underlined the importance of the feedback received.

About Philips

Philips employs some 69 700 people across more than 100 countries and invested €1.7 billion in research and development in 2023. The company holds a vast intellectual property portfolio with 53 000 patent rights, 31 500 trade marks and 135 000 design rights.