International Activities
Participation in IP5 and its related meetings including Global Dossier Task Force meeting
From January 15 to 19, 2017, Ms. Miyashita, PJ Leader of International
Policy PJ , Mr. Kato, former Chairperson of the Information System Committee,
and Mr. Otsuka, Vice Chairperson of the First Patent Committee participated
in the following meetings held in EPO, including the Global Dossier Task
Force (GDTF) meeting.
- Trilateral Users Meeting (January 15, 16)
Trilateral users from Japan (JIPA), the U.S.(AIPLA, IPO) and Europe ( Business Europe) gathered to discuss: harmonization of practical systems of patent laws, which had been considered in the B+ group; what would be provided by the users; and scenarios assumed and solutions to harmonization, and also talked about future plans. Specific topics included “grace period” (corresponding to the provision of exceptions to lack of novelty in Japan), “conflicting applications” (the effect of exclusion of later applications provided by an earlier application before publication), and “rights of prior use”, which are of great interest to the users. - IP5 Users Meeting (January 17)
Following the Trilateral users meeting, the IP5 users including KINPA and PPAC gathered and exchanged opinions about the topics to be discussed in the GDTF meeting and the
Industry Consultation Group (ICG) meeting with patent offices.
We agreed to make a request for improvement in One Portal Dossier (OPD) for public in the GDTF meeting. JIPA decided to give opinions and demands for utilization of XML, an automated import tool for XML information, and publication of European applications in XML format. Furthermore, the users agreed that JIPA would express opinions and demands for the description requirements in the ICG meeting. - The 4th Global Dossier Task Force Meeting (January 18)
Receiving reports on the utilization of OPD in the respective offices and the five priorities (alert service, XML filing, applicant name standardization, legal status, and proof
of concept), the users submitted requests for concerted activities of the respective offices for OPD, download of references, listing of non-patent documents, improvement in the
quality of machine translations, and extended service hours.
Furthermore, our video presentation of the automated import tool for XML information was well-received by the offices and was very helpful for clearing up anxiety of other users. In this meeting, EPO announced to abandon electronic filing in pdf format and transfer to electronic filing in docx format, which is a major step forward publishing applications in XML format. - The 1st ICG Meeting (January 19)
This meeting was held for the first time to further discuss practical initiatives led by IP5 Offices other than Global Dossier with the users.
In the meeting, the respective offices in charge reported the current status and future plans of the items that had been considered in the Patent Harmonization Experts Panel (PHEP) (description requirements, unity of invention, and citation of prior art), prototypes of collaborative PCT searches, and projects of information transmission for quality improvement. The users submitted questions and requests, and also positive opinions for solving the problems to achieve the goal, which were lively discussed among the participants. For the description requirements and unity of invention, JIPA as a coordinator of the IP5 users, gave opinions and feedback based on the results of our study, contributing to the discussion with the patent offices.
The discussions at these meetings, which were held in a freezing weather with some snow, covered wide topics even for a short time, and JIPA members actively participate in debate as a representative of Japanese users, giving comments and requests for improving the quality of services of patent offices, improving the convenience of patent systems, and enhancing the harmonization of such systems.
