13/01/2023
Towards the end of 2022, the European Patent Office (EPO) launched its first ever “CodeFest”, a competition to help tackle the perennial problem of plastic waste and moving to a circular plastics supply chain. Curiosity, the initiative doesn’t call for chemists, engineers, or those who work at the forefront of the plastics recycling industry. As the name suggests, competitors entering “CodeFest” will instead need to be proficient at coding.
It is no secret that I loathe plastic waste, and I am fascinated and humbled by the great minds that are trying to solve this global issue. I have discussed these plastic disruptors in previous blogs here and here. It seems that the EPO agrees with me. Back in 2021, the EPO published an insightful study analysing patent filing trends in Europe in technology fields which are poised to clean up our insatiable appetite for single use plastic (reported here).
It seems the EPO now wants to go one step further, rather than just publishing interesting trends, they want to put their wealth of patent information to good use.
Too Much Information
The official “CodeFest” web page (here) explains that the EPO’s patent register includes a wealth of information in almost every technology field going, including those tech areas relevant to “Green Plastics”. Making sense of this rich seam of technical insight, joining the dots, and using it advance the field is far from simple. If you have ever done any patent searching yourself, you’ll know it can often be hard to see the wood for the trees. One can very quickly become buried in publication numbers and CPC codes – making sense of the results is rarely trivial. The EPO wants to unlock its own repository of untapped potential.
To do this, “CodeFest” entrants are invited “to develop creative and reliable artificial intelligence (AI) models for automating the identification of patents related to green plastics”. In other words, the EPO wants coded artificial intelligence which can help those searching the European Patent Register find documents relating to “Green Plastics”.
Green Fingers
The challenge defines “Green Plastics” very broadly. The EPO states that “Green Plastics” are generally plastics with a reduced or minimised environmental impact when they are produced, used, recycled, upcycled, disposed of, when they decompose, etc. They exhibit one or more of the following properties: source renewability; biodegradability/compostability after end of life; possible to process in an environmentally friendly way. Similarly, the EPO wants to identify plastic processing methods which facilitate recycling or minimise waste.
This broad definition lies at the heart of the challenge, there is no single CPC/IPC code which covers all “Green Plastic” applications. The EPO acknowledges that successful entrants need to capture everything which could be relevant and explain their approach.
Cracking The Code
It is a mark of how seriously the EPO is taking the issue of plastic waste that they chose to dedicate their first ever “CodeFest” to “Green Plastics”. One wonders if future “CodeFests” will tackle the other great systemic problems of our time; will we see a “Green Energy Code Fest”, or maybe a “World Hunger Code Fest”?
If you’ve been playing with ChatGPT over the Christmas break, and want a chance to take home the EUR 20,000 prize, you’ll need to get a move on. The deadline for submitting your code is 15 January 2023, with the winner being announced at a “Green Plastics” ceremony on 23 February 2023. Best of luck!
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
