Source: KIPO
Date: 2011. 12. 28

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) held the 23rd Korea-Japan Heads meeting and the 11th Korea-China-Japan Heads meeting on December 15 (Thurs.) and 16 (Fri.) in Gyeongju.

At the 23rd Korea-Japan Heads meeting held on December 15th, Commissioner Lee Soowon of KIPO and Commissioner Yoshiyuki IWAI of the Japan Patent Office agreed to execute a Patent Prosecution Highway based on Patent Cooperation Treaty Work Products (PCT-PPH) between Korea and Japan. They also agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the PCT-PPH early next year and to pursue the implementation of the system immediately following the signing of the MOU.

* Patent Cooperation Treaty ? Patent Prosecution Highway (PCT-PPH): A system of providing preferential examination of a patent application if the international phase of the PCT is determined to be acceptable.
* KIPO first executed this system with the United States in July of this year and will build bilateral PCT-PPHs with Japan and China after signing the agreement with both countries next year.

The PCT-PPH will expand the opportunity for preferential examination of PCT applications. If using the highway, the period of examination for patents between Korea, Japan and China will be cut short by a maximum of one year (18 months→5 months). Accordingly, PCT application and registration rates are expected to greatly increase.

* In 2010, the registration rate of ordinary applications not using the PPH was 64 percent and the registration rate of applications using the PPH was 87 percent.
□ At the 11th Korea-China-Japan Heads meeting held on December 16th, Commissioner Lee, Minister Tian Lipu of the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China and Commissioner Yoshiyuki IWAI of the Japan Patent Office agreed to build a new intellectual property (IP) road mad and issue a statement for cooperation between Korea, China and Japan.

The “Joint Statement of Cooperation between KIPO, SIPO and JPO for the strengthening of Ties in the Intellectual Property Field” issued on December 16th, presents overall cooperation measures on IP rights between the three countries and includes details on the common use of patent examination results, protection of IP rights and manpower training.

Commissioner Lee expects cooperation on IP rights between Korea, China and Japan to accelerate compared to the last 10 years and finds the adoption of the statement for smoother cooperation very timely. He stated that the three countries will enhance cooperation for the development of each other’s IP rights according to the statement.

Furthermore, at the trilateral meeting, the three countries agreed to build a road map for new cooperation on patents between Korea, China and Japan; jointly research utility model systems between the three countries; regularly hold a design forum between Korea, China and Japan; and manage a course for examiners between the five advanced patent offices.

In particular, utility model applications in Korea, China and Japan amount to 95 percent of the world’s total number of utility model applications, yet differences exist in the systems managed by the three countries. For the ease of Korean companies located abroad, the study of utility models system is needed. So, in this time Korea, China and Japan agreed to jointly compare and research the utility model systems used in the three countries.