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"Valuable impulses": DPMA User Advisory Council concludes meeting period

DPMA takes positive stock of the 2nd appointment period of its central advisory body - Important topics: Patent quality, attractiveness of the examination procedure and awareness-raising for IP rights - Future members will be appointed in the coming weeks

Press release of 7 November 2024
Munich. At the end of the 2nd appointment period of the DPMA User Advisory Council (DPMAnutzerbeirat), the President of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Eva Schewior, drew a very positive balance. ‘We discussed important topics - and made good progress on many of them,’ said the DPMA President. ‘Above all, we at the DPMA have gained ground-breaking impetus from this panel on patent quality. The topic will continue to occupy us, because it concerns what we stand for: the quality of our IP rights.’ Schewior paid tribute to the members of the advisory boards for their work over the past four years: ‘We are very grateful to the members of the User Advisory Council for their great commitment and their many outstanding contributions. They have thus considerably strengthened the central importance of the committee as an important advisory body of the DPMA.’

The appointment period of the User Advisory Council began in March 2021. In addition to the topic of patent quality, the committee also dealt with the use of artificial intelligence in patent examination, the DPMA's new statutory information mandate, the possibility of participating in hearings via video conferencing and proposals for optimising the German patent procedure. Finally, the Council met again in a video conference on 6 November.

The members for the future period will be appointed by the DPMA President in the coming weeks on the recommendation of the various organisations in which the relevant user groups of the DPMA are represented. The constituent meeting will take place in April 2025. In addition to the topic of patent quality, the upcoming DPMA User Advisory Council could also focus on initiatives to make the patent procedure more attractive and to raise awareness of the central importance of the IP system among companies and the general public.

The User Advisory Council

The User Advisory Council was established at the beginning of 2019 as a central instrument of customer dialogue for the technical IP rights patents and utility models. The Council acts as an external and central advisory body for the formulation and discussion of user needs and for the further development of procedures at the DPMA. It currently comprises 15 external members who are appointed by the DPMA President for a term of four years. The appointment may be repeated once. The external members represent all user groups relevant to technical IP rights.

The German Patent and Trade Mark Office

Inventiveness and creativity need effective protection. The DPMA is the German centre of expertise for all intellectual property rights – patents, utility models, trade marks and designs. As the largest national patent office in Europe and the fifth largest national patent office in the world, our office stands for the future of Germany as a country of inventors in a globalised economy. Its staff of just under 2,800 at three locations – Munich, Jena and Berlin – provide services to inventors and companies. They implement federal innovation strategies and develop the national, European and international protection systems.

Picture: DPMA

Last updated: 7 November 2024