Cooperation, trust and risk in the world's major patent offices

The world's major patent offices have over the last few decades shown increasing levels of cooperation and trust. The increased level of cooperation can be explained in terms of common workload problems facing the offices and the demands of major users for greater efficiency. Increasing levels of trust amongst offices occur most strongly through examiner exchanges and eventually take the form of a technocratic trust in each others' systems. While some level of technocratic trust is desirable, it can carry risks. National offices and regional offices like the European Patent Office should not allow technocratic trust to lead them into a system in which they cede sovereignty over examination to a global system of administrative governance for patent offices.