The Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO) is comprised of representatives from leading industrial property associations and industry federations from all over the world, as well as representatives of European and international patent attorney associations. The President of the EPO also appoints recognised experts in the field of IP law as ad personam members of the SACEPO. As part of EPO’s commitment to transparency, the agency regularly engages external stakeholders in the framework of the SACEPO to involve user representatives in the development of the European patent system and to gather feedback from users to better respond to their needs. The members of the SACEPO are nominated for a three-year term of office. The current term of office runs from 2021 to 2023.

Duan Xiaoling, Partner of Wanhuida Intellectual Property participates in the SACEPO meeting in her capacity as a member of SACEPO Working Party on Quality (WP/Q) Asia/Oceania branch, nominated by user association AIPPI.

Ms. Duan attends the 8^th meeting of SACEPO WP/Q, which is convened on April 5, 2022, covering topics of “Recent developments at the EPO”, “Follow-up on the Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels in the 7^th meeting of the SACEPO WPQ 3/22”, “SP2023 quality highlights: Patent Quality Charter and More effective Office actions” and “Topics for the EPOs 2022-2023 user satisfaction survey programme”.