IP5 forum aims for user-friendly platforms

The heads of the world’s five largest intellectual property offices, otherwise known as the IP5, will deliberate on ways to improve patent issuance and protection processes when they convene this week for a three-day global forum from Wednesday to Friday in Busan, according to the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

The IP5 consists of the patent offices of Korea, Japan, China, the U.S. and Europe.

This marks the second time the five IPOs have gathered in South Korea since a previous meeting on Jejudo Island in October 2008.

The principal agenda this time will involve making existing platforms more user-friendly, the KIPO said.

Toward that goal, the forum will review KIPO’s proposal for restructuring the IP5 website to make the patent-related data more accessible to users.

The IP5 also plan on launching an email notification service for users and providing a link to One Portal Dossier, or OPD, which is a floor where the patent examiners can freely share patent applications and other relevant information.

Along these lines, the KIPO said that the IP5 would approve an official action plan to help promote patent information sharing to address the lack of development in the field since they agreed on the idea of such promotion outlined in the Patent Information Policy in 2013.

The action plan is expected to encourage more patent data exchanges between IPOs, said KIPO.

Also on the forum agenda is how and when to grant public access to file wrapper information (the patent file history), which so far has only been shared between the IP5 offices.

The final item involves developing a user-friendly system for international patents, especially the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The new system will reduce the time and effort required in getting patent protection so that by filing just one patent application under the PCT, the applicants would automatically receive international patent protection in 148 countries.

The IP5 forum will seek to further simplify the patent protection and issuance processes, such as through mobile applications, KIPO added.

By Kim Joo-hyun (jhk@heraldcorp.com)