IP5 Foundation Projects Get Green Light

by Ulrika Lomas, LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

22 April 2010

The heads of the world's five largest intellectual property (IP) offices agreed at a meeting in Guilin, China, on April 15 and 16 to move ahead on 10 Foundation Projects conceived to provide a framework to support work-sharing.

The five IP offices, or "IP5", are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The meeting was also attended by the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization as an observer.

The heads agreed that the 10 Foundation Projects were crucial in building a work-sharing environment and expressed their willingness to explore appropriate ways to speed up the process, taking full consideration of available resources.

The importance of transparency in the IP5 process was agreed, as was the need for effective communication amongst the five offices, particularly with and between examiners, and with stakeholders.

Underlining the importance of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in work-sharing, the five heads reaffirmed their commitment to collaborating with WIPO to improve the PCT system, so that its role could be further strengthened as the vehicle for efficient work-sharing.

At the meeting, the heads also reconfirmed the IP5 vision established at a meeting in Jeju, Korea in October 2008, namely:

• the elimination of unnecessary duplication of work amongst the offices;
• enhancement of patent examination efficiency and quality; and
• guarantee of the stability of patent right.

The next Heads' meeting will be in Japan in the first half of 2011 to assess IP5 progress.

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