We analyze the duration of the patent examination process at the European Patent Office (EPO). Our data contain … information related to the patent's economic and technical relevance, EPO capacity and workload as well as novel citation measures … the patent grant by the examiner or an actual patent grant. Highly cited applications are approved faster by the EPO than …

ex post patent value indicators are incorporated. A patent renewal model is tested using a large set of Pharmaceutical … patents granted by the European Patent Office between 1996 and 2009. We test five ex ante indicators and single ex post … indicator including family size, patent backward citations, backward references to non-patent literature, number of claims …

In 2004 the German Patent and Trademark Office commissioned the Ifo Institute to deliver a research report on the topic … "Identification of Available and Desirable Indicators for Patent Systems, Patenting Processes and Patent Rights". - The report … but also giving consideration to legal and business aspects. This includes the valuation of the patent system itself, the …