Early in June this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) hosted a meeting of the heads of the world's five largest intellectual property offices in California. Known as the IP5, members include the USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO).
During the meeting, the heads reviewed the progress in the work and cooperation of the IP5 in 2012, and considered the work plan of next steps. The heads also discussed their commitment to develop the "Global Dossier," a system to simplify the viewing and management of applications filed in the IP5 Offices; the establishment of Global Classification Initiative, a new effort to integrate patent classification; the adoption of IP5 Patent Information (PI) policy, helping each of the offices access to patent data; and Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project between all IP5 Offices.
Before the IP5 meeting, the 5 offices also held the second session of industry-director meeting. The industry representatives from the 5 countries communicated and exchanged views with the heads of IP5. Representatives from China were Huawei Technologies Co., ZTE, Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group and Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
The IP5 Offices meeting started in 2007 and have since worked together to improve quality and efficiency of patent examination and to guarantee of the stability of patent right between the offices.
