EPO President meets ministers in Greece and Cyprus

On 10 and 11 March 2025, EPO President António Campinos met with ministers and the heads of the national IP offices of Greece and Cyprus to discuss Unitary Patent ratification and enhanced bilateral co-operation.

Fully implementing the Unitary Patent system

In Cyprus, President Campinos met with Mr Giorgos Papanastasiou, Minister for Energy, Commerce and Industry. In Greece, he met with Mr Georgios Floridis, Minister of Justice, and Mr Pavlos Marinakis, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesperson, as well as Ms Anna Mani-Papadimitriou, Deputy Minister of Development. Discussions focused on the importance of fully implementing the Unitary Patent system in each country.

President Campinos highlighted the benefits of the Unitary Patent in reducing costs and increasing accessibility for inventors, citing its strong uptake since the Unitary Patent system was introduced in 2023. In Greece and Cyprus, nearly one in two applicants now opt for unitary effect (see the Unitary Patent dashboard below, showing requests from all countries worldwide).

Strengthening co-operation with national IP offices

The EPO President also took the opportunity to meet with the national IP offices of Greece and Cyprus to discuss ongoing collaboration under the Strategic Plan 2028. In recent weeks, new bilateral co-operation agreements defining joint activities have been agreed upon, and the European Patent Office can look forward to a range of initiatives with Greece and Cyprus, including working agreements on search co-operation and piloting new IT projects.

At the core of our co-operation is the shared commitment to strengthening the European patent system, enhancing the quality of services and making patent protection more accessible to our users, particularly for small entities and underrepresented groups.