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>[08.Dec.09] Patents – Five IP offices launch website
Source: EPO [Adapted]

The world's five major intellectual property (IP) offices - the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), also known as "IP5", have launched a new website to provide information on their joint projects.

The website - www.fiveipoffices.org - will contain news and background on co-operation, in particular on ten joint "Foundation Projects" agreed last year aimed at harmonizing the global environment for patent searches and examination and enabling work-sharing among the five offices.

IP5 co-operation was launched on the initiative of the USPTO with a first meeting of the heads of office in 2007. Its purpose was to address the ever growing backlogs in unexamined patent applications by seeking ways to eliminate the unnecessary duplication of work which occurs among the offices.

The heads of the five offices met again in Korea in 2008 where they agreed on a vision for work-sharing identifying two prerequisites, namely: timeliness and quality. To avoid unnecessary duplication of work, the office of first filing must make its work available on time, which must be of a sufficiently high standard. The ten Foundation Projects aim to establish the necessary environment at each office to meet these prerequisites.