EPO to be ISA and IPEA for Chinese PCT applicants starting from 1 December 2020
Munich, 20 October 2020 – The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), António Campinos, and the Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), Dr Shen Changyu, today announced that under a two-year pilot starting on 1 December 2020, Chinese applicants will be able to designate the EPO as their International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examination Authority (IPEA) for applications filed in English under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
EPO President António Campinos said: "This is a historic moment in our strategic co-operation with the CNIPA and, I believe, a sign of trust in the high quality of our work. The EPO is enormously proud to be the first office other than the CNIPA to be designated as an ISA for Chinese applicants and we are committed to providing the best possible service to applicants from China and worldwide".
CNIPA Commissioner Dr Shen Changyu commented: "China attaches great importance to intellectual property work. Chinese businesses consider IP protection to be a guarantee of core competitiveness and sustainable development. The PCT/ISA pilot programme is one of the important outcomes of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the CNIPA and the EPO and will help applicants to acquire IP protection in Europe".
Read the joint communiqué here.
Notes to the editor
The two-year pilot between the EPO and CNIPA, which starts on 1 December 2020, will enable nationals and residents of the People's Republic of China to select the EPO as their ISA and IPEA for applications filed in English under the PCT.
The pilot will be open to applicants filing with either the CNIPA or the World Intellectual Property Organization's International Bureau (IB) as receiving Office and limited to a total of 2 500 applications in the first 12 months and 3 000 applications in the second 12 months.
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With nearly 7 000 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.