EPO launches clean-energy platform to support researchers
Munich, 3 November 2022 - Ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), the EPO today launched a new Clean Energy platform designed to support researchers and decision-makers involved in the race for clean-energy technologies that contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal 7.
The platform provides an initial selection of some 60 ready-made smart patent information searches to help scientists, engineers and decision-makers find and build upon existing green tech solutions with greater ease.
"Inventors are at the forefront of developing innovative technologies to safeguard our planet," said EPO President António Campinos. "This new platform aims to enable these trailblazers to quickly access the information about the latest technologies that will be critical to advancing their work and fostering green tech innovation."
The clean-energy platform, which will be continually updated, aims to contribute to efforts to decarbonise the global economy within the next three decades. It is accompanied by the publication of dedicated EPO webpages profiling the latest developments in green tech.
From wind and solar to energy storage, with more technologies to come
The first 60 sets of ready-made searches released on this platform cover the areas of energy supply (offshore wind and smart solar systems); carbon-intensive industries (steel and cement production); and enabling technologies related to fields including green hydrogen production using electrolysers and the optimisation of energy storage technologies.
The ready-to-use smart search queries, developed by EPO patent examiners and data analysts who are experts in these technologies, are especially suited to run on the EPO's free to use online patent search interface, Espacenet. This public database contains more than 140 million documents from more than 100 intellectual property offices worldwide. Anyone anywhere can access the results of these smart searches. The technical information published in patent documents describes the latest technical advances and is often published nowhere else.
As a world leader in supplying technical information, the EPO is deepening its commitment to sustainability by making specialist know-how available to a broader audience. The new clean-energy platform will help accelerate the transformation of patent information into patent knowledge by supporting researchers, entrepreneurs and decision-makers in meeting climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, UN Sustainable Development Goals and European Green Deal. The EPO launched a similar information platform in 2020 for technologies to fight coronavirus, the Fighting Coronavirus Platform.
The EPO also offers accelerated prosecution of European patent applications for companies and inventors who require a fast-track patent procedure, regardless of the technology they are developing.
Further information
- Clean energy platform
- Green tech in focus
- Espacenet - the EPO's free patent database
- PACE - the EPO's accelerated patent prosecution procedure
About the EPO
With 6 300 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.
Media contacts European Patent Office
Luis Berenguer Giménez
Principal Director Communication,
Spokesperson
EPO Press Desk
Tel. +49 89 2399
1833
press@epo.org