Continuing the global patent harmonization trend, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on November 19, 2004, to coordinate work sharing, electronic business developments to support work sharing, and harmonization or standardization of search strategies, tools and substantive patent law. More than 80% of the world’s patent applications are filed in these three patent offices, known collectively as the Trilateral Offices.
Individually, the Trilateral Offices have worked to address workload challenges resulting from growth and complexity of patent applications by increasing hiring of patent examiners and investing in automation and other search tools. Together the Trilateral Offices are addressing these issues by agreeing to the following cooperative efforts.
In the area of work sharing, the Trilateral Offices will exchange prior art search results performed by another Office to the maximum extent practicable to reduce duplication of efforts with the aim to decrease workloads and enhance patent quality policy in each Office. An examiner exchange between the offices will be conducted in the spring of 2005 to help reduce any gaps identified within the search exchange project. A trilateral emerging technologies working group will be established to share ideas on best practices for effective examination of patent applications in emerging technologies.
The Trilateral Offices will continue working toward data compatibility with the various electronic filing systems so that an application can be authored once and yet filed in multiple countries. The Trilateral Offices just began a pilot program providing mutual access to the electronic files of each Office to enable each office's examiners to access application content, examination search results, priority documents, and related information.
The Trilateral Offices will continue discussions on international patent classification reform and substantive patent law harmonization. The Offices are seeking ways to harmonize the substantive standards for granting patents, and the basis on which searches and examinations are conducted.
For more information on patent and trademark issues, please contact Kenneth Horton at khorton@kmclaw.com.