Event on the role of patents in advancing climate change mitigation technologies

25 September 2017

Some 100
experts from industry, government, international organisations, universities
and research institutes, and technology transfer centres met in Athens last
week to discuss some of the challenges and recent successes in developing and
deploying new technologies to mitigate climate change. Jointly held by the EPO
and the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation, the conference is a part of
efforts to strengthen the role of the patent system in facilitating access to
and transfer of knowledge in sustainable technologies.

“To meet
demanding targets in the area of climate change, a large part of the work will
be done by inventors coming up with novel ways and new technologies to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions,” said François-Régis Hannart, EPO Principal Director
for European and International Co-operation, in his opening remarks. “By
granting high-quality patents and providing free access to patent information,
we are committed to supporting inventors, scientists and companies focused on a
new generation of cleaner, greener technologies for the benefit of the public.”

From the Greek side, the conference was
opened by Lois Lambrianidis, Secretary General for Strategic & Private
Investments at the Ministry of Economy & Development, Prodromos Tsiavos,
President of the Administrative Council of the Hellenic Industrial Property
Organisation (OBI), and Ioannis
Kaplanis, Director General of OBI.

“The battle for mitigating climate
change and protecting the environment for the generations to come is fought in
the science laboratories and Industry 4.0 factories,” said Prodromos Tsiavos.
“Our Patent Academy programme and our continued co-operation with the EPO
contributes to increasing the quality of patents and improving the patent
profession, so that we can build the technologies necessary for a cleaner and
greener future.”

The EPO’s
Chief Economist Yann Ménière highlighted the latest developments in climate
change mitigation technologies (CCMTs) in Europe and presented the European
Patent Office’s activities in this area. These include the recent publication
of a joint policy brief with the International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which shows that the number and commercial
value of CCMT inventions has been increasing globally over the past decade. The
EPO has also created a dedicated tagging
scheme
for patent documents related to low-carbon technologies, enabling users to
retrieve these technologies in the Office’s extensive public databases, and
making it possible to map sustainable technologies, identify trends, and
produce facts and evidence for policy and business decisions.

The EPO has
also published several joint studies with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
on CCMTs in specific regions. The latest EPO-UNEP
report
on Europe found that it is the world’s leading region for innovation in the
area of CCMTs, producing nearly one fifth of the world’s low-carbon inventions.
The report also shows that Europe has become the most specialised region in
CCMTs – with nearly every tenth European invention related to green
technologies.

In the closing session, Richard Flammer,
Executive Director of the Academy of the EPO, emphasised that in Europe, Greece
is one of the countries
with the highest specialisation in CCMT innovation, driven by renewable energy
technologies and in particular solar energy.  

Further
information