In the picture: Commissioner Shen Changyu of China National Intellectual Property Administration (second from right), President António Campinos of European Patent Office (first from left), Commissioner Naoko Munakata of Japan Patent Office (second from left), Commissioner Park Won-joo of Korean Intellectual Property Office (third from left) and Director Andrei Iancu of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (first from right) signed the 2019 IP5 Joint Statement in the meeting.

The 12^th Meeting of IP5 Heads of Office was held in Inchon, South Korea from June 12 to 13. Commissioner Park Won-joo of Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) chaired the meeting. Commissioner Shen Changyu of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), President António Campinos of European Patent Office (EPO), Commissioner Naoko Munakata of Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Director Andrei Iancu of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) headed delegations respectively to attend the meeting. Director General Francis Gurry of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) attended the meeting as an observer.

During the meeting, the heads of IP5 firstly had an in-depth discussion on two strategic issues of the influence and preparation of emerging technology/artificial intelligence and the future of IP5 cooperation. Shen Changyu pointed out in his speech that under the joint drive of users’ need for both quality and efficiency and emerging technology, IP5 cooperation was facing an unprecedented new situation. On one hand, the long-term cooperation measures aiming at promoting qualify and efficiency should be further strengthened and the existing services should be further improved; on the other hand, the growing and urgent need of users in the field of emerging technology should be met continuously. To cope with the double challenge, IP5 should explore solutions from the aspects of optimizing cooperation mechanism, balancing resource allocation, and strengthening exchanges and interaction with users. He emphasized that in the future, the IP5 cooperation should focus on the three aspects of strengthening cooperation on emerging technology, adjusting and improving cooperation mechanism and expanding information exchange. IP5 should maintain an open and positive attitude towards cooperation, continuously adjust the content, mechanism and form of cooperation according to the new situation, make cooperation achievements that meet users’ diversified needs, and better promote IP protection in relevant countries and regions to facilitate the technological progress and social development.

During the meeting, the heads of the five offices approved various cooperation achievements over the past year and the work plan for the next step, and signed the 2019 IP5 Joint Statement. The statement summarizes the cooperation achievements of the five offices in recent years in the areas of coordination and simplification of procedures, enhancement of work sharing, improvement of patent quality, convenient provision of patent information and statistical data, and timely revision of patent classification, and points out that the future IP5 cooperation will focus on the aspects of coping with global technological change, providing high-quality and reliable examination, and innovating and improving the IP5 cooperation mechanism.

In the 8^th IP5 Heads of Office and Industry Meeting held on June 12, Shen Changyu introduced the latest deployment of China’s government on the IP work to industry representatives from China, the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea, and especially introduced CNIPA’s work on IP protection, examination and services. During the meeting, all sides had in-depth exchanges on the two strategic issues of emerging technology and the future of IP5 cooperation. Enterprises including Xiaomi and Gree attended the meeting on behalf of Chinese industry and were active in the meeting.

Deputy Commissioner Gan Shaoning of CNIPA presented the Meeting of IP5 Deputy Heads of Office, which had been held previously, and attended the above activities. (Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)