Publication of the EPO report on SQAPs 2023 findings
The report published by the EPO in June 2024 summarising the findings of the Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels 2023 (“SQAP 2023”) is of such value to European patent attorneys that it deserves to be signaled in epi information. This report is included as an Annex to the EPO’s Quality Report 2023 (available at https://link.epo.org/web/general/annual-review-2023/en-quality-report-2023.pdf).
The SQAP 2023 audits involved three panels covering the following topics : search reports and written opinions ; intermediate communications (substantive objections); grant procedures.
Each panel included 6 subpanels dedicated to the various technology areas, each made up of 2 EPO experts and 2 external assessors, appointed by BusinessEurope and the epi. Each subpanel assessed 6 granted patents selected at random, which have not been subject to opposition. Thus each panel audited a total of 36 granted patent files.
The SQAP 2023 report provides rich and detailed assessments of quality issues relating to granted patents. The findings also include some helpful suggestions for improvement. There is no need to repeat or paraphrase here the content of the EPO SQAP 2023 report, it speaks for itself. But the EPO is to be given special credit for the make-up of the SQAP 2023 panels. The mix of EPO experts and external assessors in the SQAP 2023 panels brought significant advantages: it favoured interactions between EPO experts and external assessors during the drafting of the findings, and it provided in many cases shared findings. Shared findings have obviously the key value of high credibility.
An issue of concern to practitioners, the requirement to adapt the description to remove inconsistencies with the claims, raised critical comments. The EPO has already heard the messages, as clear from the 2024 revision of Guideline F-IV 4.3 which now requires that the inconsistency “casts doubt” on the meaning of claim terms, not just “might cast doubt”. The practice of the Examining Divisions since April 2024 especially as to changes entered at the R 71(3) stage appears to have changed accordingly, avoiding the need for challenges by the applicant and speeding up the grant procedure.
