Lithuania and the European Patent Office strengthen cooperation: focus on future challenges and digitisation
Today, Vice-Ministers of Justice Barbara Aliaševičienė, Kristina Zamarytė-Sakavičienė, Martynas Dobrovolskis and Director of the State Patent Bureau (VPB) Vita Kiriliauskaitė met with António Campinos, President of the European Patent Office (EPO), at the Ministry of Justice.
The meeting focused on future challenges and potential scenarios that the patent system will face in a rapidly changing technological and geopolitical environment. It was discussed how to strengthen cooperation between Lithuania and the EPO in order to ensure a sustainable future for Lithuania and Europe as a whole, as well as competitive and long-term economic growth.
Measures were discussed that could help participants of the patent system prepare for changes in the near future, from accelerating digitisation to more effective access to services. It was also discussed how to create more favourable conditions for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, as well as scientific and research institutions, so that they could effectively protect inventions and other intellectual property and compete successfully in the European market.
“Cooperation with the European Patent Office is an important factor in strengthening Lithuania's innovation ecosystem and preparing for future challenges. This partnership helps ensure that our inventors and businesses have access to expert and state-of-the-art knowledge, services and more opportunities in the field of intellectual property protection.
Certain groups of Lithuanian national patent applicants can enjoy favourable conditions for conducting novelty searches at the EPO, methodological assistance and professional development opportunities are ensured to our experts. The EPO also actively contributes to the improvement of IT systems through joint projects related to the digitisation of patent registers and services.
All this is done to enable applicants to conveniently find information, services and tools in one place. Digitisation and system improvement remains a strategic direction of international cooperation, facilitating the ensuring of an effective, transparent and business-friendly patent system in the future,” emphasized Vita Kiriliauskaitė, Director of the VPB.
The meeting emphasised the need to continue strengthening cooperation with the EPO in digitising services and stepping up the network of Lithuanian PATLIB centres, which is part of the EPO-driven initiative of patent information centres.
The European Patent Office unites 39 European countries.
For more about the European Patent Office, see www.epo.org
Last updated: 27-02-2026