On July 21, 2020, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will host the 13th meeting of IP5 Heads of Office for the first time through video conferencing, attended by CNIPA, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). Scheduled to open in June in Chengdu, China, this annual meeting is now postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will be held through video means.

A cooperation event with great influence, the Meeting has attracted wide attention from IP professionals worldwide, and is of great significance to the IP5 cooperation and future development. The Meeting will focus on the strategic measures to combat COVID-19 and the IP5 cooperation in the post-pandemic period. It will also report the progress and approve the future plans of projects concerning emerging technologies, patent harmonization and other fields, issue the online conference guideline to standardize the new working mode of IP5 cooperation, as well as the IP5-Industry communication mechanism.

The IP5 cooperation started in 2007. Over the past dozen years, the initial 10 basic projects have been developed to dozens run by several working groups, with substantial results achieved in work-sharing among five offices, the efficiency and quality of patent examination, and the dissemination and utilization of patent information. Based on the new vision set in the 2017 joint statement, the five offices will conduct patent harmonization of practices and procedures, promote work-sharing, provide quality and timely search and examination results and seamless access to patent information, in order to create an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent landscape.  (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)