Quality dashboard 2024 results
The latest quality audit results highlight continued improvements in search and grant processes, reflecting the success of the Quality Action Plan.
Earlier today, the European Patent Office (EPO) updated its quality dashboard to reflect the 2024 annual figures. The results from the entire year of product audits confirm a continued improvement in substantive quality, with 2.7% fewer findings overall at grant and 4.4% fewer findings overall at search compared to 2023.
Contributing to this positive evolution at grant is better assessment of novelty or inventive step, with incorrect assessments decreasing from 7.9% of sampled files in 2023 to 6.8% in 2024. Auditors also observed improvements in the assessment of dependent claims and clarity, aspects that do not necessarily impact patent validity, but which are important to our users.
Search audit results for 2024 confirm the positive impact of quality actions such as the Active Search Division, with findings related to invalid objections raised by examiners significantly decreasing from 11.5% in 2023 to 6% in 2024. Finally, audits again confirmed the high quality of the search, with auditors finding a more relevant prior art document in only 3% of files in 2024.
A detailed overview of the quality audit results will be provided this June in the EPO’s 2024 Quality Report.
More on the Quality dashboard
Launched in March 2024, the Quality dashboard fosters transparency by delivering regular updates on quality standards and user satisfaction. It showcases essential key performance indicators (KPIs), providing stakeholders with a clear and comprehensive view of quality in the EPO’s patent granting process. The dashboard builds on the annual Quality Action Plan, which defines targeted actions aimed at enhancing the quality of the EPO’s products and services.
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