International Activities

"The 4th IP5 Patent Office Presidents and IP5 Users Meeting" and "IP5 Users Meeting"

The Fourth IP5 Patent Office Presidents and IP5 Users Meeting between the patent offices (JPO, USPTO, EPO, CIPO, and KPO) and users was held in Suzhou, China on May 21, 2015, subsequent to the third meeting held in Busan, South Korea, last year. Presidents and vice presidents attended from the IP5 Offices, including Mr. Kihara, Deputy Commissioner of JPO (Mr. Ito, Commissioner of JPO was absent for attending to the Diet proceedings), and members of the Trilateral Users (JIPA, AIPLA & IPO, and Business Europe) meeting as well as KINPA (Korea Intellectual Property Association) of South Korea and PPAC (Patent Protection Association of China) of China attended as the IP5 Users just as last year. From the JIPA side, Mr. Takashi Suzuki, vice president, Ms. Miyashita, leader of the International Policy PJ, Mr. Morita, assistant leader of the International Policy PJ, and some other members participated in the meeting. Mr. Sandage, Deputy Secretary-General of WIPO, also participated as an observer.

This meeting was held for the fourth time on the occasion of the IP5 Patent Office Presidents Meeting in order to listen to and reflect opinions and requests from the IP5 Users in discussions aiming at improving the quality of patent examination and examination efficiency in each office, which the IP5 Patent Offices have been considering as a project since 2007.

The fourth meeting of this time had more than 140 participants in total since there were a large number of participants from the venue, China. The meeting was led in such a manner that the IP5 Patent Office Presidents/vice presidents first introduced recent activities of their respective offices, then the users explained their opinions and requests on the projects considered by the IP5 Patent Offices and so on, and the offices were asked to make comments on them followed by an exchange of views.

Specifically, lively discussions were made on a wide range of topics such as global dossier, patent harmonization, future direction of PPH. JIPA focused on patent harmonization, more specifically "description requirements" and "unity of invention," which are items whose harmonization is to be discussed. Mr. Otsuka, vice chairman of the First Patent Committee, and Mr. Ohashi, ex-chairman of the First International Affairs Committee, made a presentation on the issues which JIPA has investigated and researched since last year in order to further promote harmonization of the above items. JIPA's contribution was highly valued by each patent office. JIPA will promote further investigation and research and continue to further contribute to the harmonization.

The next time meeting, i.e., the fifth meeting will be held from late May to early June next year in Japan (location TBD).

On May 20, the day before the IP5 Patent Offices and IP5 Users Meeting, we had a meeting of the IP5 Users only. The users shared what the topics were and how discussions proceeded on each topic, and exchanged their views on what the opinions and requests on each topic should be as users to organize them in preparation for the meeting on the following day.

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