Patent applications published by the EPO exceed four million - Fondee IP Law LLC

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The European Publication Server reached a new milestone when the EPO published EP 4,000,000. The featured application from L’Oréal, one of the top ten French applicants in the 2021 Patent Index, concerns an image recognition method in which artificial intelligence is trained to recognize skin tone so customers can match cosmetics more accurately.

EP 4,000,000 is also part of a larger trend in fourth industrial revolution technologies. The article notes that AI has spread into sectors not traditionally seen as digital, including cosmetics, and uses the milestone to reflect on how patent publication has evolved.

The EPO stopped paper publication of European patent documents in 2005 and now publishes only online through the European Publication Server. Its patent information services include the European Patent Register, EP Bulletin search, EP full-text search, Global Index, PATSTAT and Espacenet, while SP2023 continues to emphasize access to patent knowledge and better tools for users.