Slides summarizing the questionnaire provided prior to the discussion round on patent statistics that took place during the 2014 European Patent Office Patent Information Conference in Warsaw, Poland

1. EPOPIC 2014: Discussion round 7
Survey results
Christian Soltmann 5.4.2 Patent Information Promotion 5 November 2014

2. For what purpose is patent statistics done?
§ Most important:
- to assist the competent experts when deciding to
establish a legal relationship with others
- to report on competitors’ activities or predict future
activities
European Patent Office
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3. Clients: Level of expertise with respect to
patent statistics
§ In general, clients do not understand well patent
statistics and the results
§ Business/legal people do not understand relationship
between patents and products
§ Scientists/engineers do not understand legal
implications of patents
§ Clients trust in experts' know-how and analyses
European Patent Office
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4. Obstacles that prevent from understanding the
results of patent statistics
§ Complexity of patent statistics
§ Client often does not understand implications of results
for his daily routine
§ Depending on background information available, results
may be understood in different ways
§ Results are often too complex to fit the client's 'yes-no'
expectation
European Patent Office
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5. Expections of EPO to overcome the obstacles
§ Improve
- data quality
- consistency
- name harmonisation/standardisation
§ Provide good training
§ Present examples (case studies) of good practice in the
field of patent statistics
§ Inform relevant target groups about the benefits of
patent information apart from purely technical aspects
European Patent Office
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