July 04, 2018
World’s Five Largest Patent Offices Inaugurate the First Collaborative Examination
KIPO Commissioner Yunmo Sung attended the annual meeting of the heads of the world’s five largest intellectual property offices (commonly referred to as the IP5) held in New Orleans, US on June 14, 2018. The meeting participants included Andrei Iancu, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office; Benoir Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office; Naoko Munakata, Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office, and Shen Changyu, Commissioner of State Intellectual Property Office of P. R. China. In addition, John Sandage, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, attended as an observer.
At the meeting the Heads of IP5 Offices agreed on the initiation of a PCT Collaborative Search & Examination (CS&E) pilot program starting from July 1st, the very first cooperation case where IP5 Offices’ examiners will work together to examine one PCT application. Once initiated, the pilot is expected to show a new possibility for examination cooperation among countries, and contribute to improvement in patent examination services by helping applicants obtain predictability of patents in early stage of examination with enhanced quality. Upon completion of the pilot period, a follow-up discussion will be held among the IP5 Offices about the official launch of the PCT CS&E program.
The Heads of Offices also affirmed their willingness to strengthen inter-Offices cooperation on various intellectual property issues related to the 4th industrial revolution.
Notably, the IP5 Offices agreed to continue its discussion on the transparency surrounding standard essential patents (SEPs) whose importance has increased across industries due to the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The focus of discussion will likely be put on how to increase both legal stability and predictability of SEP-related systems.
Furthermore, the findings of the project evaluation have been adopted for the sake of increasing efficiency in IP5 cooperation. The future developments in the Global Dossier and patent harmonization have also been widely supported by the participants.
In a separate meeting on June 13 with representatives of IP5 industry groups, the IP5 Heads discussed a range of strategic topics including ‘Quality’ and ‘Evolution of the IP5’. The representatives of IP5 industry groups recognized the significant progress that has been achieved by IP5 cooperation in terms of the increase in quality and efficiency in patent examination over the last decade.
“IP5 is indeed the key cooperation framework that leads improvement in global IP systems.” said KIPO Commissioner Yunmo Sung. “KIPO will remain committed to continuing its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other offices so as to ensure the global IP environment improves keeping up with innovation-driven advancement in the era of the 4th industrial revolution.”
The next IP5 Heads of Office meeting will be hosted by KIPO in June next year in Songdo, Incheon.