With the increasingly fierce global economic and technological competition, enterprises are facing increasingly complex and diverse intellectual property issues. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises are often unable to rely on their own strength to solve problems due to the lack of experience in intellectual property management and resources.

1. Use PACE acceleration in the retrieval phase

For the patent application submitted for the first time (without priority), EPO will speed up the search without any separate request. That is to say, the applicant can obtain the extended search report within 6 months from the date of application. For applications not submitted for the first time (priority required), if the applicant requests acceleration, the EPO will also issue an extended search report as soon as possible.

It should be noted that no matter whether the applicant claims priority or not, the accelerated search can be carried out according to the provisions of PACE only when the application documents are complete enough for the EPO to write the extended search report.

Under the following circumstances, if it may be necessary to refer to the previous application, or to submit part of the description or drawings later, or to submit claims later, it is impossible to use PACE acceleration. There is another situation that the applicant needs to pay attention to. If the notice under Article 62a, 63 or 64 of the EPC Rules must be followed, it is only possible to write a search report and opinions after receiving the applicant's reply to the notice or after the time limit expires, and then it can be accelerated according to PACE.

2. Leverage PACE acceleration during the review phase

For the patent application of "direct European route", in principle, the applicant can request in writing to speed up the examination at any time. However, in order to improve efficiency, it is better for the applicant to make a request in the following circumstances: when submitting the European patent application, he/she should also request to accelerate the examination; Or, when receiving the extended search report and the applicant's reply to the search opinion, they should jointly propose a request for accelerated review.

For the European patent application (Euro-PCT) submitted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, in principle, the applicant can also request in writing to speed up the examination at any time.

However, in order to be as efficient as possible, it is better to make a request in the following circumstances: when the patent application enters the European stage, or together with the reply to WO-ISA, IPER or SISP requested under Article 161 (1) of the EPC Rules. If the request for accelerated review is made in the first case, it means that the formal review, supplementary European search report and/or substantive review are all requested to be accelerated.

3. Discard Rule161/162 notification

Even if the PACE request is submitted, the European Office will still comply with the six-month period specified in Rule161 and Rule162 of the EPC, and cannot start the supplementary European search or actual review process before the expiration of this period. In view of this, if the applicant wishes to speed up the process, he/she can consider giving up the right to be notified by Rule161/162.

4、PPH

PPH, the patent examination highway, is a popular acceleration program in recent years. Although China and Europe have not directly signed the PPH agreement. However, both China and the European Patent Office are members of IP5. From January 6, 2014, the authorization of European applications can be accelerated based on the positive review results of China's earlier applications or the positive PCT work results made by the Chinese Patent Office. The requirements for submitting PPH requests to the European Patent Office based on IP5 are similar to the current PPH request procedures in various countries.

No matter which way the applicant chooses to accelerate the process of a European patent application, it needs to consider its advantages and disadvantages comprehensively. For example, if the applicant chooses the PPH procedure, the claims of the European application need to be modified to be the same as the claims of the relevant countries, which may lead to an unsatisfactory protection scope.