November 08, 2024
KIPO hosted IP5 annual meeting in success
On June 20, 2024, the 17th high-level meeting among the Heads of the world's five largest intellectual property offices, known as the "IP5," came to a successful conclusion with members of the IP5 reaffirming their continued commitment. Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) took the role of hosting office once again in five years since 2019, welcoming the delegations from four jurisdictions - the European Patent Office (EPO) for Europe, Japan Patent Office (JPO) for Japan, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) for China, and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the US – in Seoul, Korea.
Leveraging IP in furthering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
One of the important topics the IP5 offices covered in this year's meeting was leveraging IP in furthering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which has increasingly been at the center of attention over the last couple of years. Their acknowledgement of the importance of innovation in providing solutions toward achieving the UN SDGs is now even engraved in the new vision statement which was adopted in last year's meeting. This year, the IP5 offices agreed to develop "Guidelines for Building Sustainable Future' as a way to set forth their medium to long-term approaches to implementing the new IP5 vision. KIPO is expected to play a key role in carrying out the task as a co-leading office together with the JPO.
Under this topic, the heads also shared information on key initiatives and policies on supporting the IP-leveraged growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who own innovative technologies. KIPO introduced its comprehensive efforts in this area that include granting fee reduction, offering a subsidy for IP valuation, helping commercialization and others.
Creating a user-friendly and inclusive international patent landscape
The offices also discussed technical cooperation measures that have been implemented in order to establish an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent landscape. After KIPO made a presentation on the progress of the 'Global Assignment' project which is to simplify the recording of assignment documents among the IP5 offices for the sake of IP owners, the IP5 offices agreed to finalize their internal review as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the CNIPA agreed to join in the KIPO-USPTO-JPO trilateral initiative that aims to provide applicants with examination results within three months from their filing under the Patent Prosecution Highway. With the CNIPA's participation, applicants wishing to acquire IP rights in China will be able to receive examination results in a faster and more predictable manner.
Responding to rapid developments in new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI)
The IP5 offices had a discussion on keeping the IP systems up-to-date with the advancement of technologies, and checked the progress and next steps of the NET/AI Roadmap which has been implemented since 2021 mainly by KIPO and the EPO. Notably, the final outcomes of the study projects, i.e. Examination practices on AI-related inventions and inventorship of AI-generated inventions, were approved by the heads. Especially, the latter contains the latest policies of the five offices, including the USPTO's 'Inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions.'
KIPO officials said "It was our great pleasure to host this important meeting once again in Korea, especially in Seoul which resonates with creativity and dynamism. We will continue to make every effort to make meaningful contributions working with our valuable IP5 colleagues to the realization of US SDGs and advancement of global IP systems."