Düsseldorf, November 9, 2018 – Given the increasingly critical developments at the European Patent Office (EPO) under its previous presidency, representatives of 14 law firms from all over Germany met in Munich on October 16, 2018 for a constructive discussion with the new EPO President António Campinos. Alberto Casado Cerviño, Vice-President of the Directorate-General for Patent Granting Processes, Niclas Morey, Director for Quality Management, Mathilde ten Seldam, Head of Internal Audit and Supervision, and Delia Cristina Brasfalean, international consultant for legal matters and quality guidelines, also took part in the discussion on behalf of the EPO.
At the meeting, the representatives referred to the open letter addressed to the EPO by four German law firms in June 2018, in which they expressed clear concerns about developments at the EPO, the Office's efficiency strategy, and the future quality of patents. COHAUSZ & FLORACK and 9 other renowned law firms had supported the open letter on the occasion of it being re-sent to the new EPO President on August 6, 2018. The President invited Mathias Karlhuber and Dr. Natalie Kirchhofer, both patent attorneys and partners at COHAUSZ & FLORACK, to a roundtable discussion at the EPO in Munich.
"The responsible persons at the EPO were very willing to talk," says patent attorney Mathias Karlhuber. All participants agreed that the EPO has delivered very high quality in international comparisons in the past and that this quality must be maintained at all costs or even further improved. The EPO promised to continue the constructive dialogue that has now begun. The main aim is to define quality criteria, establish feedback possibilities, and to eliminate the causes of the criticisms raised. "The meeting was a successful start. We are confident that the dialogue with the EPO will continue constructively and entirely in the spirit of high-quality and thus reliable patent protection," says Dr. Natalie Kirchhofer.
Open letter from June 7, 2018 and supporting letter from August 6, 2018
