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Results of the Third Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office

The Heads of the world’s five largest intellectual property offices (IP5) of Japan, the U.S., Europe, South Korea, and China held the third Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office in Guilin, China, on April 15 and 16, 2010.

To further promote the efforts with their patent examination-related work-sharing that they have been cooperating so far, the Heads evaluated and approved the ten foundation projects that they have been discussing to date, and agreed on the way forward.

1. Background

The number of patent applications has been rapidly increasing for recent years on the global scale, rising to approximately 1.85 million in 2007, 1.6 times as large as that of ten years ago. Out of this total, about 1.41 million patent applications were filed to the IP5 of Japan, the U.S., Europe, South Korea, and China, occupying almost 80% of the total number of patent applications. In addition, approximately 430,000 patent applications, about 30%, were filed redundantly to the IP5.

As an increase in patent applications on a global scale in this way has been posing a sharply-rising burden on patent examination tasks, the IP5 held the first Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office in 2007 to push ahead with information sharing on their efforts on work-sharing of patent examination and on improvement of patent procedures.

In the second Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office in October 2008, Heads agreed to launch the ten foundation projects to promote work-sharing, such as setting up a common application format. At the Meeting of IP5 Deputy Heads of Office in September 2009, Deputy Heads decided to establish three working groups on patent classification, information technology(IT) and patent examination in order to implement these ten projects.

2. Participants

  • Japan Patent Office (JPO): Tetsuhiro Hosono, Commissioner of the JPO, etc.
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, etc.
  • European Patent Office (EPO): Alison Brimelow, President of the EPO, etc.
  • Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO): Jung-Sik Koh, Commissioner of the KIPO, etc.
  • State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO): Tian Lipu, Commissioner of the SIPO, etc.

3. Outline of results of Third Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office

At the meeting, the three working groups made progress reports on the ten foundation projects (see the Attachment for more information on each project), and then the Heads evaluated and approved the matters decided by each working group. In addition to future efforts to encourage the progress of each project and promote further work-sharing, Heads discussed the importance of creating XML standardization advocated by the JPO, and setting up short-, medium- and long-term targets on IP5’s future cooperation, and also agreed to further enhance cooperative efforts among the IP5.

Continuous cooperation among the IP5 will improve the quality and the efficiency of patent examination tasks at each patent office and will further strengthen global protection of patent applications sent out from Japan.

Release Date

April 19, 2010

Division in Charge

International Affairs Division, Japan Patent Office