Impact of work sharing on patent quality

Due to the increasing workload of patent offices and the resulting pressure for efficiency in examination, many patent offices are entering into collaborative work sharing arrangements e.g. through use of a common shared search report or online file inspection systems. Such work sharing arrangements - while increasing efficiency - may have an impact on patent quality if examiners rely too much on searches by other offices without conducting an independent examination, thereby losing the benefit of a thorough pressure test of the invention.

The ICC Commission on Intellectual Property is surveying ICC members to find out if they have experienced problems in this respect.

We should be grateful if you could fill in this short survey (estimated time - 2 minutes) by 28th February 2018. The information gathered will allow the Commission on Intellectual Property to determine if this problem is prevalent and if further work on this is necessary.

For any further information on this survey, please contact Angèle Beauvois at abs@iccwbo.org.