More patents then ever before

PATENT PRACTICE 
MORE PATENTS THAN EVER BEFORE - BUT ALL RIGHTLY?

More patents filed with the European Patent Office than ever before - but all rightly?

Patents protect the owner from imitators. But patents granted without thorough examination also hinder competition unjustifiably. Once they have been granted, they prevent anyone else from offering the - possibly wrongly protected - product. Therefore, every entrepreneur who feels threatened by such a flood of patents should look for information that can eliminate such patents again. One way to do this is with our AVALANCHE fact-scouting.

In 2021, more than 188,000 patent applications were filed at the European Patent Office(EPO), as the Office recently presented. Leading applicants were companies from China and Korea. The only question is whether the patents are rightly granted, which then lead to companies based in Europe not being able to bring their products to the local market.

But the facts show that not all that glitters is gold, even when it comes to granted patents. 70% of the patents granted were restricted or even destroyed in 2020 following objections by third parties. Conversely, this means that not even a third of granted patents remained unchanged.

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So a precise search helps - even if you first think you are "on the losing end"!

For this purpose AVALANCHE Research uses a dynamic, self-organising survey among experts in the relevant branch with its fact-scouting. An approach that manages to find information that may have been hidden until now, but could be decisive for or against the patent. If the search turns up information that the patent office has not seen, it can be used to overturn patents that have been wrongly granted.

In this way, good ideas can prevail on the market even against hastily granted patents.

Link to the publication of the EPO: Welcome to the Patent Index 2021

Klaus RauneckerAs an enthusiastic patent attorney, I am passionately dedicated to protecting innovations. And I support the idea that true technical pioneering achievements should be rewarded by patents. But only true achievements. Everything else ultimately harms everyone. That's why I developed the Avalanche method of fact scouting.