EPO launches survey on use of patent information

The EPO is launching a new survey into how patent information is used and who does - or rather, doesn't - use it, and why. The study will be carried out in all the EPO member states plus the USA (for reference data), and the findings will allow us to identify ways of improving the accessibility and comprehensibility of patent information.

We undertook a similar study in 2002-2003 and the main headline result then was that 70% of European industry did not use patent information. The results of the new survey will be compared with those from 2002-2003, to see if that percentage has changed.

The survey will also explore the impact of the new opportunities afforded by the European Patent Network, the business sector, and the evolution of patent information into patent intelligence.

Our target group is the innovation sector at large - including industry, public sector research, and academia. We are not especially focussing on patent applicants or patent attorneys, although some may get into the study because of the randomised sampling procedure.

The survey methodology is based on telephone interviews with representative samples from all the member states. To make the survey as relevant as possible, the interviews will be carried out in the appropriate language - that's around 25 different languages altogether!

A market research company in The Netherlands has been contracted to run the survey and an international call centre has been brought in to carry out the telephone interviews.

Source: EPO web site (http://www.epo.org/)