The Tegernsee Group (representatives from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the patent offices of Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US) has published its final consolidated report on the Tegernsee user consultation. The Tegernsee Group, set up to promote patent harmonisation, appointed patent experts who produced studies on the grace period, 18 month publication, treatment of conflicting applications and prior user rights. Each member of the group then began a consultation asking for stakeholder views on these topics. The results of the EPO consultation were published in October 2013 (see Legal update, EPO publishes report on Tegernsee user consultation). The expert group then prepared a joint factual summary analysing the results of the individual office reports, which has been published following approval by the heads of the Tegernsee group. There was a wide divergence of views on the grace period and the related topic of prior user rights. However, there was general agreement that there should be no opt-out from the 18 month publication of applications. Conflicting applications seemed to be relatively rare, and "patent thickets" were less common than expected, except in the areas of telecommunications and computers.

Source: Consolidated report on the Tegernsee user consultation on substantive patent law harmonization, 22 May 2014.