European Patent Office Deploys Mistral AI OCR Model to Modernize Patent Processing

The European Patent Office has deployed an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) model developed by Mistral AI to improve the quality and efficiency of its patent granting process. The system converts non-machine-readable documents into structured data, enabling more accurate prior-art searches and analysis.

Developed through a joint proof-of-concept project, the model was fine-tuned using selected patent data to handle multilingual text, complex formulas, chemical structures, and older scanned publications. The technology has now been fully integrated into the EPO’s digital infrastructure following a successful three-month evaluation.

The collaboration aligns with the EPO’s AI Policy and Strategic Plan 2028, which emphasize the use of responsible AI technologies to enhance operational resilience. The partnership also supports European digital sovereignty by ensuring that sensitive patent information is processed within European legal and ethical frameworks.

The EPO processes around 200,000 patent applications and grants annually and manages a database containing over 160 million technical records. The organization plans to further refine and scale the OCR solution based on operational experience.