USPTO Hosts Meeting of the World’s Five Largest Patent Offices

Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Margaret J.A. Peterlin last month hosted the second Heads of Offices Meeting with the world’s five largest patent offices. The five-day meeting enabled the USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China to build from last year’s historical meeting in Hawaii and discuss further cooperation initiatives to meet the growing patent application filing demand and improve patent quality.

Participating in this year’s discussions were Manuel DeSantes, Vice President of the EPO, Toshimichi Moriya, Deputy Commissioner of the JPO, Jong Kyun Woo, Director General of the Management Innovation Bureau of the KIPO, and Tiejun Yang, Deputy Commissioner of SIPO.

In her opening remarks, Deputy Under Secretary Peterlin noted, “Patent application filings around the world continue to rise as countries begin to realize that innovation powers economic growth and as economies become increasingly globalized. Our offices must discover new cooperative ways to increase our efficiency while maintaining the high quality our system demands. This meeting signifies the commitment of the world’s largest offices to continue to work together in finding these solutions that will maintain the integrity of the patent system to meet the changing world.”

The week-long talks focused on sharing experiences, analyzing on-going cooperative initiatives, and exploring information technology issues and future work sharing initiatives to meet the growing demands placed on the patent system. In the end, the meeting opened up dialogue and resulted in a successful framework for moving forward on these cooperative initiatives.

###