CDFS Partner Raymond Farrell Attends Global Patent Harmonization Meetings In Japan

  • Mar 26 2018
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  • Category: News

Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt, LLP Partner Raymond Farrell traveled to Japan twice in the month of February to attend two separate separate groups of high level patent harmonization meetings as part of a delegation of the AIPLA’s Patent Harmonization Committee.

The first trip spanned from January 30 to February 3 for meetings held in Tokyo. Mr. Farrell attended “IP5” and “Industry IP5” harmonization meetings.  The “IP5” is made up of the China Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), European Patent Office (EPO) Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  The “Industry IP5” consists of AIPLA, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), Business Europe (BE), the Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), the Korea Intellectual Property Association (KINPA) and the Patent Protection Association of China (PPAC).  The group met to discuss preparations for the scheduled meetings of the IP5 Global Dossier Task Force and the IP5 Industry Consultation Group (ICG).  Those meetings, which included the Japan Patent Office, the Korean IP Office, the China IP Office, the European Patent Office and the US Patent & Trademark Office, took place on January 31 and February 1, respectively.

At the Global Dossier Task Force meeting, topics of discussion included further improvements needed for the Dossier, quality of the system, and difficulties and possible solutions associated with including non-patent literature in the dossier.  Reports were given on the status of ongoing projects of sharing documents and information among patent offices, converting to XML, providing legal status information, including alerting functions, and standardizing applicant names.

The ICG meeting included reports on three projects of the Patent Harmonization Experts Panel (PHEP), Unity of Invention, Citation of Prior Art and Written Description, as well as discussion of future work of the PHEP. Other topics of discussion included ongoing Collaborative Search and Examination pilot programs, enhancements to the IP5 Website (www.fiveipoffices.org), IP5 project evaluation and reorganization, and new work sharing initiatives.  A report on the status of substantive patent law harmonization in Group B+ was also given.

Further meetings of the Industry Trilateral Organization (AIPLA, IPO, JIPA, and BE) took place on February 2-3 to continue the group’s work seeking agreement on major substantive patent harmonization issues, including grace period, conflicting applications, prior user rights, and prior art.

Mr. Farrell’s second trip spanned from February 27 – March 1 in Tokyo and Hakone where he was a part of a seven-member delegation of the AIPLA for further global patent harmonization meetings.

The meetings focused on continued discussions of the key issues being considered by the Trilateral patent offices (EPO, JPO and USPTO) and the Industry Trilateral Group (AIPLA, IPO, BE, JIPA) in an attempt to reach consensus on a broad package of substantive patent legal matters, including grace period, prior user rights, conflicting applications, 18 month publication, and prior art. Mr. Farrell and the delegation also met separately with the newly confirmed Director of the USPTO, Mr. Andrei Iancu, to provide him with a briefing on AIPLA activities and patent harmonization efforts.

On March 1, 2018 in Hakone, the Japan Patent Office hosted the annual Trilateral Patent Office Heads meeting with the Industry Trilateral. The agenda included updates from the JPO, EPO, USPTO, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on statistics and recent trends in each office.

Trip 1

Tokyo, Japan – Global Dossier Task Force January 30, 2018

Trip 2

Hakone, Japan – Trilateral (JPO, EPO, USPTO) Heads of Office Meeting March 1, 2018

Hakone, Japan – Trilateral (JPO, EPO, USPTO) Heads of Office Meeting
March 1, 2018