PTO Engaged In Global Work-Sharing Effort
The Patent and Trademark Office unveiled a blueprint Friday for work-sharing among five major intellectual property offices to address the common challenges they are currently facing. The heads of the agencies met in Jeju, Korea, Oct. 27-28 to discuss a unified vision for work sharing and collaboration.
The meeting, which was chaired Jung-Sik Koh, commissioner of the Korean IP office, was attended by PTO Director Jon Dudas; European Patent Office chief Alison Brimelow; Takashi Suzuki of the Japan Patent Office; and Tian Lipu of China's IP office. Their joint vision: “The elimination of unnecessary duplication of work among the offices, enhancement of patent examination efficiency and quality, and guarantee of the stability of patent right.”
The offices established a cooperative framework of 10 projects devised to harmonize the search and examination environment of each office and to standardize the information-sharing process. The projects are expected to facilitate the work-sharing initiative by enhancing the quality of patent searches and examinations and building mutual trust in each other’s work, PTO said. Each office will oversee two projects and agreed that by the end of April 2009, they would exchange detailed proposals on the initiatives.
The impact of work-sharing is expected to be tangible and substantial, PTO said. Up to 250,000 applications are filed at two or more of the IP offices per year and reutilization of the work of another office for duplicate applications can lead to significant improvements in patent examination efficiency across the board. IP leaders pledged to continue working together toward the realization of the shared vision and agreed to reconvene in 2009.
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