International Activities

Participation in the 20th session of WIPO-SCP

A few members of the Medicinal & Biotechnology committee including chairman Mr. Ueda took part in the 20th session of WIPO-SCP (Standing Committee of the Law of Patents) held at Geneva, Switzerland during Jan. 27-31, 2014. This forum is held by WIPO nearly once a year, in which government agency representatives from around the world as well as representatives from the respective IP associations, private organizations, and NGOs participate as observers to discuss intellectual properties. The themes of the discussion in the past included the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT).

On this occasion, "Quality of patents, including opposition systems," "Exceptions and limitations to patent rights," "Patents and health," "Transfer of technology," and "Confidentiality of communications between clients and their patent advisors" were on the agenda, and suggestions and opinions were actively provided by the participating countries in the respective sessions.

JIPA participated in this forum for the first time since May 2003. The objectives of the present participation were to understand what opinions about the harmonization of the patent laws were given by the participating countries in an international conference and to use them as an indication of what activities and initiatives JIPA would need in the future. Unlike the conventional trilateral meetings of Japan, the U.S., and Europe or IP5 meetings in which China and South Korea are added thereto, this forum contains all of developed countries as well as developing countries and least developed countries including various countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. Thus the contents of discussion had different tones. The developing countries and least developing countries claimed that exceptions and limitations to patent rights should be flexible from the viewpoint of humanity; that handling of patent rights relating to health should be flexible; and that the transfer of technology should be accelerated for the sake of developing countries. In contrast, the developed countries claimed that patent rights are important because development of pharmaceuticals and the like is time-consuming and costly and needs the return of the investment, and so on. The representative of Japan also argued that utilization of WIPO GREEN in which JIPA was involved is useful in technology transfer. The participants discussed how they should internationally harmonize patents based on these points in the future.

In this forum, discussions proceed with a main focus on arguments by government agency representatives of the respective countries, and political issues are also discussed. Thus it is difficult for JIPA to actively make remarks, but the participation was meaningful for JIPA to contribute to the development of the industries of the world in the future and understand international trends in harmonization of the patent laws. We have recognized that it is useful to continue to participate in and follow up the activities of this forum.

• Back