The EPO ends its “Standard” and “Special” search service

The EPO discontinued its standard and special patent search service on 1 September 2007, although searches undertaken before that date will be completed. This useful service was provided on a contractual basis by the EPO (and, before that, by its predecessor the International Patent Institute, founded in 1947), offering users a variety of commercial patent searches including patentability, validity and freedom to operate searches.

The Administrative Council of the EPO decided to end the service in order to promote the European Patent Network. The EPO and the national IP offices of the member states set up the European Patent Network to enhance co-operation and share workload between the offices. The Administrative Council’s intention is that national offices will now perform contractual searches that previously would have been performed by the EPO. We understand that the Administrative Council did not consider the standard and special patent search service as being part of the EPO’s ‘core business’.

Some of the national offices (for the example the UK Office) have provided commercial search services for some time, effectively in competition with the EPO. In total, 14 national offices provide a contractual search service and the Administrative Council hopes that further national offices will now make such services available.

The EPO has an excellent reputation for the quality of its searches and regular users of the standard and special patent search service will be sorry that it is no longer available. It will be a challenge for the national patent offices to meet the high standards set by the EPO. Whilst they have access to the EPO’s prior art database, many patent offices lack the language skills of the EPO Examiners. Many of the EPO’s databases are also available to commercial searchers, and former users of the EPO’s standard and special patent search service will of course also have the option of hiring a private firm of patent searchers for future searches, rather than transferring the work to a national office.