Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels

The Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAPs) bring together external European patent attorneys and EPO experts to perform joint in-depth reviews of selected granted EPO files. They identify areas of convergence and divergence in interpretation of the EPC, highlight areas of good practice and provide valuable feedback on user expectations of quality to promote learning and improvement. These expert panels report to the SACEPO Working Party on Quality, a forum designed to foster a common understanding of quality between the EPO and the users of the European patent system.

For more information, please see the Quality Report 2022, which includes a detailed report on the 2022 SQAP activities.

In 2023 the number of SQAP sessions has been increased from one to three. The programme has been further expanded and the first two SQAP sessions on search/written opinions and intermediate communications took place in June. Another session on grants took place in October.