The State Intellectual Property Office successfully hosted the Ninth Meeting of IP Heads of China and the Republic of Korea, Third Trilateral Dialogue Among the Commissioners of the State Intellectual Property of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the Tenth Meeting of Commissioners of SIPO and JPO, from November 13-15 in Beijing.  SIPO Commissioner Wang Jingchuan presided the above three meetings.  Deputy Commissioners Tian Lipu and Li Yuguang also attended.  The series of meetings offered a forum for communications among high-level IP personnel form the three countries.

At the Ninth Meeting of IP Heads of China and the Republic of Korea, Commissioner Wang and Commissioner Dong-Man HA of KIPO introduced the latest development and future plans of their offices, recalled the development of the cooperation between the two offices since the last meeting and exchanged opinions on issues of common concern.  Commissioners also signed an agreed minutes for next year's cooperation.  In 2004, the cooperation of two offices will focus on bilateral visits, information exchange, training, joint search of prior art, electronic exchange of priority documents, IP protection and enforcement, and more communication on important international IP issues. 

The Third Trilateral Dialogue, which was held in China for the first time, was the main event of the series of meetings.  The First Meeting of the Joint Expert Group for Automation among China, Japan and Korea, held in August at SIPO, set a good tone for the three side's cooperation in automation, one of the most important items on the agenda. 

The mechanism of the Trilateral Dialogue started in 2001.  Upon the suggestion of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) hosted the First Trilateral Dialogue in Tokyo on September 11, 2001.  The mechanism was formally confirmed at the meeting.  It was concluded that the three offices would host the annual meeting in turn. 

At this time, the three Commissioners recalled and evaluated the cooperation development since the Second Meeting.  They highly rated the set up of contact points for patent information exchange and the First Meeting on automation.  The Commissioners unanimously passed the initiative presented by the automation group. 

At the SIPO-JPO Meeting on November 15, the Commissioners reiterated the importance of the cooperation in IP between the two offices and expressed their will to help promote the trade between the two countries by further strengthening the cooperation.  Commissioner Wang Jingchuan introduced SIPO's measures in accelerating patent examination and enhancing IP protection and the consequential results while JPO Commissioner Yasuo Imai noted the examination backlog JPO faced and Japan's march in IP protection.   The two sides also set the principles for next year's cooperation and preliminary plan for bilateral visits, experience exchange in patent examination and training. 

2003-12-17

2003-12-17