10 February 2023
The European Patent Office (EPO) is
holding a public consultation to gather input from stakeholders and include their
diverse viewpoints in the first biennial Work Plan (2023-2025) of its
Observatory on Patents and Technology. The Observatory will contribute to a
deeper and more comprehensive understanding of important issues related to the
future of innovation and technology, and their impact on the patent system.
The first Work Plan will outline the
topics covered by the Observatory as well as the activities and tools it plans
to implement, ranging from calls for interest, consultations, awareness-raising
campaigns, online seminars, educational activities and the development of a
digital library. It will list the
priorities for the Observatory on Patents and Technology ready for its launch
in the second half of 2023.
This consultation will run until
Friday 10 March and is open to all interested stakeholders and experts of
the innovation ecosystem. The EPO encourages participation from a broad
community of innovation experts and not only IP specialists.
The launch of the Observatory also
follows approval of the EPO’s Administrative Council in June 2022. The concept
for the Observatory and the proposal tabled to the Council was developed using
feedback gathered from a first online consultation that was run in February
2022.
