OLD ideas and inventions could be mistakenly granted European patents unless
examiners’ workloads are reduced, according to the staff union at the European
Patent Office. EPO examiners say they now have to process so many applications
that they can no longer do their jobs properly and have begun industrial action
in a bid to get staffing levels increased. The examiners at the EPO’s head
office in Munich and branch offices in the Hague, Berlin and Vienna staged
warning strikes earlier this year, but failed to win any concessions.
Some 19 European states now support the EPO system of accepting one…
