 The rigour of EPO's patentability criteria: An insight into the "induced withdrawals"George Lazaridis and
Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie
World Patent Information, 2007, vol. 29, issue 4, 317-326 Abstract: The EPO traditionally grants at least 60% of all patent applications, the rest being either withdrawn (30-35%) or refused (5%). This paper provides quantitative evidence suggesting that up to 54% of all patent withdrawals could be considered as induced by the work of EPO examiners, and hence may be taken as a more appropriate indicator of the rigour of the EPO. "Induced withdrawals" and refusals occur for up to 23% of all applications at the EPO. This share varies according to (1) the route chosen for an EPO filing; (2) the technological field that is considered; and (3) the country of residence of the assignee. The number of claims only slightly affects the share of withdrawals. However, on average, two additional claims induce an additional communication from the EPO, which in turn prolongs the procedural duration by an additional year. Keywords: European; Patent; Office; Grant; Patent; filing; Induced; withdrawals; Claims; Communications; Examination; procedure (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:worpat:v:29:y:2007:i:4:p:317-326 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article World Patent Information is currently edited by Michael Blackman More articles in World Patent Information from Elsevier |
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