EPO partners with Serco Germany for patent classification

The European Patent Office (EPO) has partnered with Serco Germany to develop services relating to the classification and reclassification of patent documentation.

Serco has already received five work packages and will assume responsibility for the reclassification of around 50,000 documents by July 2020.

In addition, Serco will bid for individual task orders containing multi-lingual patent documents, the classification of which will be “critical” to the EPO patent process.

Commercial and contractual management of the partnership agreement will fall to Serco Germany, with support from Serco North America and the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Gaetan Desclée, managing director at Serco Europe, commented: “We are delighted to have signed this framework agreement and look forward to supporting the EPO.”

He continued: “The award of this framework agreement is an excellent example of Serco’s ability to support its customers by transferring global knowledge and expertise across its international business, this time from North America to Europe.”