August 2024 [General] Newsletter

August [General] Newsletter

The 17th Meeting of the Five Heads of the National Security Agency

The 17th Five Heads of Office Meeting was held on June 20, 2024, among the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). Prior to the 17th Five Heads of Office Meeting, the Five Heads of Office and Users Meeting was held on June 19, 2024, the day before the meeting.

At the 17th IP5 Heads-General Meeting, the main theme was "Building a Comprehensive Intellectual Property System for Sustainable Innovation," and discussions were held on the role of intellectual property in promoting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and ways in which the IP5 can cooperate in this field.

At the 16th IP5 Directors' Meeting held last year, a comparative table was approved that summarized the IP5 laws, examination guidelines, and examination examples, etc., created under the initiative of the JPO, regarding the IP5's examination practices for AI-related inventions. In addition, at the 16th IP5 Directors' Meeting, the following new IP5 vision was agreed upon.

"We aim to foster innovation and economic growth and build a sustainable future through an inclusive and accessible patent system. We will promote patent protection through harmonization, quality and timely search and examination results, work-sharing, and access to patent information, and achieve an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent environment."

Meanwhile, at the 17th IP5 Directors' Meeting, a new comparison table was approved that categorizes the examination case portion of the comparison table in more detail. In addition, it was agreed that a "Guideline for Building a Sustainable Future" would be formulated and that efforts would be made in the medium to long term to realize the new IP5 Vision.

In addition, at the aforementioned Meeting of the Office Five Heads of State and Users, an exchange of views was held regarding strengthening cooperation between the Office Five and its user organizations in supporting SMEs.

In light of the above, it is expected that the five IP offices will further advance their efforts in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and in the examination of AI-related inventions.

Examiner consultations with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) held an examiner consultation with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) from May 20 to 24, 2024. The JPO also held an examiner consultation with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) from June 10 to 14, 2024.

The "Examiner Consultations" are an initiative aimed at fostering trust and deepening mutual understanding through discussions between examiners from overseas intellectual property offices about each other's prior art document search methods and examination practices, as well as promoting the mutual use of prior art search results and examination results.

The JPO continues to hold examiner consultations with overseas intellectual property offices, and has been holding such consultations with KIPO and the DPMA on an ongoing basis since 2000.

At this examiner consultation, the two offices discussed patent cases common to both offices with KIPO in the field of optical devices (electroluminescence light sources), and with DPMA in the fields of natural resources (living environment) and medical devices (treatment devices). They also exchanged information on prior art document search methods and the application of examination guidelines.

In the future, in the field of optical devices, if a patent application for the same invention is filed in both Japan and Korea, it is likely that the JPO and KIPO will show similar opinions and the patent will be granted with similar content. Similarly, in the field of natural resources and medical equipment, if a patent application for the same invention is filed in both Japan and Germany, it is likely that the JPO and DPMA will show similar opinions and the patent will be granted with similar content.

F-term revision information

The Japan Patent Office has created "F-terms" to classify patent documents according to their technical scope, and these are used as search keys for domestic patent documents during examination. The "F-terms" have been maintained as necessary to keep up with technological advances and function as appropriate search keys. Specific contents of the maintenance include revisions to themes such as merging and dividing themes and recreating the F-term list, as well as the creation of new themes and the suspension of F-term analysis of new documents due to the conversion of F-term themes to FI themes, etc.

For maintained "F-terms," ​​reanalysis is performed by reassigning new F-terms to published documents to which the pre-maintenance F-terms were assigned. Therefore, care must be taken when conducting searches using F-terms in fields related to the maintained "F-term."

This time, the F-terms under maintenance and reanalysis were published on June 12, 2024. The main F-terms under reanalysis are as follows:

Newsletter translated into English

17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting

On June 20, 2024, the 17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting was held between the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration ( CNIPA), and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). A meeting of the IP5 Heads of Office with IP5 Industry was held one day earlier on June 19, 2024 as a precursor to the 17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting.

At the mentioned 17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting, under the theme of building a comprehensive IP system for sustainable innovation, the main topic of discussion was the role of IP in promoting the growth of SMEs and the nature of cooperation in this area among the five offices.

At the 16th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting held last year, a comparative table of laws, examination standards, examination cases, etc. of the five offices with regard to their examination practices for AI-related inventions, which had been prepared on the JPO's initiative , was approved. In addition, at the 16th meeting, the following new vision for the five offices was agreed upon.

“Building a sustainable future by fostering innovation and economic growth through an inclusive and accessible patent system. Promoting patent protection through harmonization of practices and procedures, high-quality and timely search and examination results, worksharing and access to information and achieving an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent landscape.”

Meanwhile, the 17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting approved a new comparative table in which the section on examination case studies of the mentioned comparative table is classified in more detail. It was also agreed that “Guidelines for Building a Sustainable Future” will be formulated in the future to realize the new vision of the five offices and to work on it in the mid- to long-term.

In addition, at the mentioned meeting of the IP5 Heads of Office with IP5 Industry, opinions were exchanged on strengthening cooperation between the five offices and the IP5 user groups regarding support for SMEs.

Based on the above, it is expected that the five offices will make further efforts to support small and medium-sized enterprises and to examine AI-related inventions in particular in the future.

Examiner consultations with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) held examiner consultations with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) from May 20 to 24, 2024. The JPO also held examiner consultations with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) from June 10 to 14, 2024 .

The “Examiner Consultation” is an initiative to promote mutual use of prior art search and examination results, etc. by fostering a sense of trust and deepening mutual understanding through discussions with examiners of overseas IP offices regarding each other's prior art document search methods and examination practices, etc.

The JPO has been continuously consulting with examiners at overseas IP offices, and has held examiner consultations with the KIPO and the DPMA continuously since 2000.

During the Examiners' Meetings, the two offices discussed common patent cases – with the KIPO in the field of optical devices (electroluminescent light sources) and with the DPMA in the fields of natural resources (living environment) and medical devices (therapeutic devices) – and exchanged information on methods of prior art document searches and the operation of examination standards.

In the future, it is likely that the JPO and KIPO will take a similar view and might grant patents for the same contents in the field of optical devices when the same invention is filed in Japan and Korea, respectively. in the fields of natural resources and medical devices is filed in Japan and Germany, it is expected that the JPO and the DPMA will take a similar view and might grant patents for the same contents.

F-term Revision Information

The JPO has created “F-terms”, which classify patent documents by technical scope, and are used as search keys for domestic patent documents in the examination process. The “F-terms” have undergone maintenance as necessary in response to technological developments so that they may continue to function as appropriate search keys. The specific contents of the mentioned maintenance includes theme revisions such as theme merging, splitting, and F-term list re-creation, as well as the suspension of F-term analysis of new literature due to the creation of new themes and the conversion of F-term themes into FI themes, etc.

For a maintained “F-term,” reanalysis is performed by reassigning a new F-term to the published literature to which the pre-maintenance F-term was assigned. Therefore, care should be taken when conducting searches using F-terms in fields related to the maintained “F-terms”.

The F-terms that have been maintained and are being reanalyzed were published on June 12, 2024. The main F-terms under reanalysis are listed below.