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The 3rd IP5 Patent Office Presidents and IP5 Users Meeting" and "IP5 Users Meeting
The Third IP5 Patent Office Presidents and IP5 Users Meeting between the patent offices (JPO, USPTO, EPO, CIPO and KPO) and users was held in Busan, South Korea on June 5, 2014, subsequent to the second meeting held in Cupertino, suburb of San Jose, US, last year. Presidents and vice presidents attended from the IP5 Offices, including Mr. Hato, commissioner of JPO, and members of the Trilateral Users (JIPA, AIPLA & IPO, and Business Europe) meeting as well as KINPA of Korea and PPAC of China attended as the IP5 Users just as last year. From JIPA side, Mr. Sasaki, vice president, Mr. Takenaka, leader of the International Policy PJ, Ms. Miyashita, assistant leader of the International Policy PJ, Mr. Morita, managing director, and some other members participated in the meeting. Mr. Takagi, Deputy Secretary-General of WIPO, also participated as an observer.
This meeting was held for the third 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 to 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 third meeting had more than 100 participants in total and was led in such a manner that the IP5 Patent Office Presidents first introduced recent activities of each office, 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 developed on a wide range of topics such as global dossier, patent harmonization, future direction of PPH/PCT, and patent information policy. JIPA focused on patent harmonization, more specifically "description requirements," "duty of disclosure of the prior art by the applicant," 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, chairman of the First International Affairs Committee, made a presentation on the issues which JIPA investigated and researched 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 harmonization.
On June 4, the day before the IP5 Patent Offices and IP5 Users Meeting, we had a meeting of the IP5 Users only. This meeting took place at the venue at which the APEC meeting was held in 2005. 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 in preparation for the meeting with the IP5 Patent Offices on the following day.
[Update 2014-06-27 ]
