Insights

At the end of March, the European Patent Office (EPO) publicly outlined the latest outcome of its dialogue with the German Association of Industry Intellectual Property Experts (VPP) and major corporate representatives: AI will continue to be integrated more deeply into the patent granting process and user-facing services, but this will not mean handing legal judgment over to machines. The shared position is becoming clearer: AI should strengthen efficiency, consistency and accessibility, while final legal decisions, procedural control and institutional accountability must remain firmly in human hands.

This matters not because “patent offices use AI” is a novel headline, but because the EPO is now defining the institutional role of AI more precisely. AI is being framed not as a substitute for examiners, but as an amplifier of examiner capability. It is not being presented as a shortcut for lowering examination density, but as a foundational tool for improving search, classification, information handling and workflow coordination. For applicants, in-house IP teams and external representatives, the real signal is that European patent examination will continue to become more digital and more intelligent, while still insisting on procedural fairness, traceable responsibility and legal rigor.

By late March 2026, two USPTO workflow changes around Patent Center had moved from announcement to live operating reality. Effective March 9, the Automated Interview Request (AIR) form was relocated into Patent Center and is now submitted from the Existing Submissions menu. On the same effective date, courtesy ceremonial paper copies of eGrants stopped being automatic and became opt-in when the issue fee is paid. For law firms, portfolio managers and applicants that rely on stable internal routing, these are not cosmetic changes. They alter where routine procedural action actually happens.

On paper, one update concerns interview scheduling and the other concerns a post-allowance paper courtesy copy. In practice, both point in the same direction: the USPTO is concentrating more prosecution behavior inside Patent Center while shifting more legacy defaults into affirmative user choices. That means the operational risk no longer lies mainly in misunderstanding substantive patent law. It increasingly lies in failing to update filing habits, responsibility maps and client-facing checklists quickly enough.

In March 2026, WIPO’s Madrid System Information Notices page turned into an unusually dense stream of individual-fee updates. On March 12 alone, WIPO listed 17 notices changing individual fees, including several markets that sit near the top of many international trademark filing plans for cross-border businesses, such as China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and Indonesia. The United Kingdom had already issued its own notice on January 26, with the revised fees taking effect on April 1. For brand owners using the Madrid System for centralized filings, subsequent designations and renewals, this is not a routine administrative refresh. It is a direct reset of cost assumptions for 2026 portfolio planning.

The bigger risk is that this wave does not affect only new applications. Under the relevant notices, the revised amounts apply to international applications received by the Office of origin on or after the effective date, to subsequent designations filed on or after that date, and to renewals processed on or after that date. In practice, filings already penciled in for early Q2 may now sit on opposite sides of two fee cut-off points. That makes immediate recalculation a portfolio-management task, not a clerical update.

As Kazakhstan’s package of intellectual property amendments, signed in November 2025 and brought into implementation from January 2026, begins to take practical effect, one of the most consequential changes for brand owners has moved from policy headline to usable procedure: within a trademark system where ordinary examination still typically takes around seven months, the accelerated route compresses the full review cycle to roughly three months. For businesses assessing how and when to enter Central Asia, that is not merely an administrative improvement. It changes the sequencing of clearance, launch, channel negotiations and enforcement planning.

From the perspective of Chinese and other export-oriented companies, Kazakhstan often functions not only as a destination market but also as a regional foothold for distribution, pilot operations and brand testing across Central Asia. Once the trademark timeline is materially shortened, the chances increase that a company can secure its brand before a product launch, stabilise rights before appointing distributors, and build a cleaner evidence chain before localised operations or cross-border e-commerce begin. But speed does not eliminate risk. The real shift is that trademark filing now needs to move forward in the market-entry calendar, rather than remain a remedial step after business has already started.

On December 12, 2025, the USPTO updated the PTAB Trial Practice Guide to provide that, for AIA trial cases instituted under the process implemented on October 17, 2025, the Board will hold a pre-hearing conference with the parties no later than fifteen days before the oral hearing. For parties in inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR), this means that disputes often treated as matters for final-stage oral emphasis—claim construction, the rationale for combining prior art, and objective indicia of nonobviousness—are now formally pulled forward into an earlier and more structured procedural checkpoint.

This is more than a scheduling refinement. The PTAB has also indicated that the conference is designed not only to signal which issues the panel would like addressed at the hearing, but also to give the parties a chance to identify issues they want raised at the hearing, and to discuss certain pending motions, limited evidentiary admissibility issues, and unresolved demonstrative disputes. For companies and counsel, the practical shift is significant: oral advocacy is no longer just a last hearing-day performance. It is increasingly a two-step contest made up of pre-hearing issue management and formal oral presentation, with the quality of preparation for the first stage shaping the effectiveness of the second.

The application window for the WIPO Global Awards 2026 will close on March 31 at 23:59 Central European Time. The program is open to startups and SMEs from all 194 WIPO Member States, but the real test is not simply whether a business owns patents, trademarks, designs or copyrights. The stronger question is whether those rights have already been turned into something economically and socially legible: market entry, product differentiation, licensing leverage, investor credibility, operational scale, or measurable public impact. For innovative companies that already sit on a meaningful mix of technology, brand, design or content assets, this is not just another award deadline. It is a deadline for translating IP strategy into an international growth narrative.

This year’s most notable development is the addition of a new Sports Prize, introduced in line with the 2026 World IP Day theme, “IP and Sports.” On the surface, that looks like a thematic expansion of the awards structure. At a deeper level, it signals something more important: the international conversation around IP is moving further away from static ownership and closer to real-world commercialization, sector relevance and demonstrable social value. For startups and SMEs rushing toward the deadline, the most valuable preparation is therefore not just polishing a company profile. It is building a persuasive explanation of why their IP has already become an engine of growth.