IP5: ten years of cooperation

On June 1, 2017, at the annual IP5 meeting held by EPO in Malta the heads of the IP5 Offices commemorated a decade of successful cooperation established in 2007.

IP5 is the association of the world’s five top intellectual property offices: 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 objectives of the IP5 are patent practices harmonization, work-sharing and overall speed-up and optimization of patent procedures. The Offices established the IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) which gives the opportunity to use both national and international work products of all the offices during examination of the application. Another joint service with the framework of cooperation is the Global Dossier – an online service for monitoring statuses of family patents and patent applications at the IP5 Offices.

For further boost of the cooperation, the heads of the Offices agreed to launch the operational phase of the third pilot project on Collaborative Search and Examination under PCT approximately on May 1, 2018. To guarantee higher quality of international search reports (ISRs) and written opinions (WOs), the IP Offices acting as the relevant International Search Authority (ISA) will conduct international search in collaboration with other IP5 Offices – so-called peer ISAs.

As the IP5 strives for maximum client orientation and better services for public, the Office heads held a consultation with industry representatives to get the overview of the users’ expectations as to further development of the IP5.

Next meeting will be hosted by the USPTO and held in 2018.

To get information on patent registration in the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, China or other countries of your interest, feel free to visit our applicant's guide.

Author: Lynda Miller