The Search Matters 2019 workshop organized by the European Patent Office was held in Munich, Germany on May 6-8. The representatives of our company took part in the event along with the patent attorneys, patent search specialists and educators from different countries.

During the event the following issues were considered:

• the impact of AI and Blockchain on search
• search strategies
• Asian prior art
• free search tools such as Espacenet and Patstat
• complexity of searching in automotive, ICT and chemistry fields

The event was held in the format of round tables and plenary lectures. One of the main features of the workshop was the opportunity provided to the participants to discuss the methods of patent searches in some technical areas with the individual examiners.

We were pleased to attend the conference, to meet personally the EPO experts and to discuss the special aspects of patent searches. We look forward to new meetings at the upcoming IP events.