We lead the consortium selected in the largest contract for the development and maintenance of the European Patent Office’s applications for the next five years.
This contract will strengthen the EPO’s technological infrastructure and will be an important element in the implementation of its 2028 Strategic Plan.
We lead the consortium that has been selected as prime contractor to carry out application development and maintenance services for the European Patent Office (EPO). The contract has an estimated maximum value of €160 million and is expected to run for five years. The consortium includes Bilbomática, an Altia Company, ARHS, SoftServe and SAM Solutions, all of them with extensive experience in large-scale technological projects.
This contract, called SDAM, is fundamental for the EPO, an intergovernmental institution that received more than 199,000 patent applications in 2023 and plays a crucial role in supporting innovation and economic growth in Europe.
Critical applications
The EPO contract focuses on the development and maintenance of organisation-critical applications and covers the business, corporate and web publishing domains. Altia, together with our consortium partners, will be responsible for the creation, maintenance and optimisation of the applications that support the EPO’s internal and external processes. These applications must be robust, efficient, scalable, and capable of handling the complexities of the European patent system. The consortium will be responsible for the evolution and preventive and corrective maintenance of the applications under the contract, ensuring their operability and security. This includes support, troubleshooting and upgrading of systems to maintain high levels of performance.
In addition, improvements to the EPO’s technology infrastructure will be implemented, with security upgrades and performance optimisation to ensure that the systems are resilient and able to adapt to future demands.
“We are very proud to lead this consortium and to have been selected by the EPO for a contract of such importance and scope” says Óscar Fernández, director of Altia European Services. “The combined experience of our partners allows us to address the complex technological needs of the EPO efficiently and safely.”
This contract reaffirms Altia’s position as an IT service provider for large European public organisations, and its positioning in the field of intellectual property.