KIPO "Advanced 5 Major Patent Offices Deputy Director Meeting...Pre-coordination of Main Meeting Agenda"

On the 9th, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it will hold a virtual meeting of the IP5 Deputy Commissioner Meeting. This meeting was arranged as a preliminary coordination session for the agenda of the IP5 Heads of Office Meeting scheduled to be held in Seoul from June 18 to 20 this year. Korea will preside over the meeting as the chair country during this period.

At the Deputy Commissioner Meeting, the main topics to be discussed include ▲establishing a user-friendly global intellectual property system such as international patent assignment ▲responding to changes in the intellectual property environment due to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence ▲and ways to realize the Sustainable Development Goals in the field of intellectual property.

During this session, the IP5 Deputy Commissioners will review issues discussed in previous working meetings to build a user-friendly global intellectual property system. In particular, discussions will be held on the ‘international patent assignment’ project, which allows the effect of patent assignments to be collectively recognized in IP5 countries by submitting a patent assignment application only once, thereby saving costs and time for overseas patent holders.

Measures to respond to new technologies such as artificial intelligence will also be a major agenda item at the Deputy Commissioner Meeting. The meeting will cover the implementation status of the ‘IP5 Advanced Technology and Artificial Intelligence Roadmap,’ which Korea led in establishing in 2019. Additionally, the meeting will share research results on IP5’s legal and case law trends regarding whether to recognize artificial intelligence as an inventor. Taking this opportunity, KIPO plans to lead discussions on intellectual property issues related to advanced technologies within IP5.

The Deputy Commissioner Meeting will also discuss specific cooperation measures in the intellectual property field to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. At last year’s Heads of Office Meeting, IP5 agreed to explicitly include ‘realization of sustainable development’ in the IP5 Vision Statement, which had previously focused on examination cooperation and system harmonization. This is evaluated as having laid the foundation for IP5 to cooperate diversely in the intellectual property field to address global issues such as climate change.

Based on this, KIPO has set the theme of this year’s IP5 Heads of Office Meeting as ‘Building an Inclusive Intellectual Property System for Sustainable Innovation’ and plans to derive specific intellectual property cooperation tasks for IP5 to implement the Sustainable Development Goals related to economic growth, innovation, and infrastructure.

Kim Si-hyung, Acting Commissioner of KIPO, said, “Close cooperation among IP5 is essential to realize sustainable economic development. KIPO will make every effort to prepare for the IP5 Heads of Office Meeting to be held in Seoul in June, creating an overseas intellectual property environment friendly to Korean companies while enhancing Korea’s status as a global intellectual property hub.”

Meanwhile, IP5 is the G5 in the intellectual property field, accounting for 85% of global patent applications. KIPO, ranked fourth among advanced intellectual property institutions worldwide, established IP5 in 2007 together with the patent offices of the United States, China, Europe, and Japan, leading efforts to create a ‘user-friendly global intellectual property ecosystem.’