IP Fridays - your intellectual property podcast about trademarks, patents, designs and much more · Rolf Claessen and Ken Suzan

Interview with Eva Schewior, President of the German Patent and Trademark Office – Rising Filing Numbers and How to Deal With Them – AI For Patent Examiners – Bad Faith Trademark Applications – Career at the DPMA – Episode 171 – IP Fridays

·35 min·2 clips

Eva Schewior says the DPMA saw 95,000 trademark applications in 2025, an 18% increase.

1. IP Fridays episode 171 focuses on Eva Schewior and the German Patent and Trademark Office’s response to rising filings, AI, trademarks, and patent strategy. 2. Eva Schewior appears as president of the German Patent and Trademark Office, and hosts Ken Suzanne and Rolf Klaessen frame the conversation as an update on current IP practice. 3. The episode asks how the DPMA can keep procedures fast and high-quality while application numbers keep increasing. 4. Schewior says patent applications have risen for years, even after the unitary patent system, and that the office wants to stay attractive to applicants. 5. She gives a patent-processing average of about three years and two months from filing to grant when the examination request is filed within four months and no extensions are requested. 6. She says search requests rose by nearly 50% over 10 to 15 years, but the office still delivered search reports on time in 90% of cases. 7. Schewior explains that applicants fall into two groups: about three quarters want a patent granted quickly, while the remaining quarter mainly wants an early search or first examination. 8. She says the DPMA is recruiting young colleagues in Munich and Jena and using new technical options to reduce examiner workload. 9. On AI, she says the DPMA already uses AI for patent search, classification, and translation of Asian patent literature into English. 10. She adds that the office is watching the market for further AI uses, especially to address demographic change and quality standards. 11. Schewior says human decision-making will remain central in public administration, and AI can support but never replace patent or trademark examiners. 12. For patent quality, she says the office uses double checks for all grants and rejections and a quality-management tool that randomly reviews first office communications and searches. 13. She describes the user advisory board, or Nutzerbeirat, as an external panel with startups, patent information centers, and patent attorneys represented. 14. On trademarks, she says the DPMA saw 95,000 trademark applications in 2025, which was an 18% increase from the previous year. 15. She says applications from outside Germany, especially from China, rose sharply, and that bad-faith trademark applications are becoming more common. 16. She says sound marks, multimedia marks, and holograms are still rare, while word marks and combined figurative marks remain the main filing choice. 17. Schewior says applicants can now choose revocation proceedings with the courts or the office, and that the DPMA fully examines invalidity claims based on non-use. 18. She says the office’s trademark department was restructured to distribute work more evenly and notes a €200 accelerated-examination request that can lead to registration within one or two weeks. 19. The interview stays practical and policy-focused, with concrete figures, procedural explanations, and a calm conversational pace between the hosts and the DPMA president. 20. Listeners interested in European trademark and patent strategy, especially SMEs and practitioners, will get the most value, while casual listeners seeking entertainment may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical look at trademark pressure, procedure, and the tradeoffs between court and office handling.

Rising filings and bad-faith trademark applications frame the episode, with Eva Shevior describing how the German Patent and Trademark Office is reorganizing its trademark department, training examiners, and working to keep proceedings from dragging as application volumes keep…

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