EPO and ETSI renew co-operation

On 27 November 2025, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) held their first high-level meeting at the EPO’s headquarters in Munich, during which EPO Vice-President for Legal and International Affairs Christoph Ernst and ETSI Director-General Jan Ellsberger signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a 3-year Work Plan.

The MoU reaffirms the EPO’s long-standing access to ETSI standards and working documents, which are essential sources of non-patent literature in examination of telecom inventions which will improve patent quality.

The agreement is aimed at improving transparency in standard-essential patents (SEPs) through direct data links between ETSI’s IPR database and EPO patent tools such as Espacenet, PATSTAT and the Technology Intelligence Platform (TIP), through which users can access SEP information.

ETSI Director-General Jan Ellsberger states that “closer co-operation with the EPO helps Europe stay competitive” whilst making reference to rapidly evolving fields such as 6G, artificial intelligence, quantum and clean technologies.

The MoU reaffirms the EPO’s long-standing access to ETSI standards and working documents, which are essential sources of non-patent literature in examination of telecom inventions. These materials play a central role in ensuring the quality, consistency and reliability of patent searches and decisions. The agreement also introduces new areas of collaboration on education, SME outreach and policy communication.

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