MUNICH - Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAPs) enhance quality by involving European patent attorneys and experts from the EPO (European Patent Office) in reviewing EPO patents. Last year’s SQAPs also provided valuable input for the EPO’s Quality Action Plan 2024. The SQAPs sessions in October will cover search reports and written opinions, grants and refusals, according to the official website of the Office. 

After the success of previous years’ Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAPs), the EPO is now launching the program for 2024. The SQAPs reinforce the dialogue with our users in a structured and collaborative environment, in line with the Strategic Plan SP2028. As outlined in the latest Quality Report, the program has expanded since 2022, continuously incorporating feedback and suggestions provided by the SQAPs assessors, as well as members of the SACEPO Working Party on Quality (WP/Q), the Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPO (epi) and BusinessEurope (BE). In 2023 the number of SQAPs sessions was increased from one to three, assessing the quality of EPO work at more stages of the procedure in dedicated sessions for search reports and written opinions, grants and intermediate communications.

This October’s SQAPs sessions

The selection of topics for this year and the organization of the forthcoming sessions has been endorsed by SACEPO WP/Q. To ensure the consistent, annual review of our main products, there will once again be a session on search reports and written opinions, as well as a session on grants. These will be complemented by the first SQAPs session on refusals, a topic requested by SQAP assessors and other epi members. The three sessions will take place online as follows:

• Search reports and written opinions, October 21, 2024

• Grants, October 22, 2024

• Refusals, October 23, 2024

The EPO and its expert panelists look forward to welcoming European patent attorneys from SACEPO WP/Q, epi, and BE to jointly assess the quality of selected cases and continue the shared journey toward establishing a common understanding of patent quality.

The organization of SQAPs is a key initiative for improving the quality of EPO products and services together with users. SQAPs identify best practices and areas for improvement and, in 2023, provided valuable input for the EPO’s Quality Action Plan 2024. The findings of last year’s SQAPs sessions have been published in the Quality Report 2023.