FICPI has just announced a new Session 8 at the FICPI Forum being held in Munich this September. Speakers at this session,focussed on recent developments and planned initiatives in key IP offices, will be headlined by Mr. Robert L. Stoll, Commissioner of Patents in the USPTO. Mr. Stoll, commissioner since October, 2009, and previously Dean of Training and Education at the USPTO, directing efforts to train foreign officials and the public on all aspects of intellectual property, will discuss developments and initiatives at the USPTO and be available to answer your questions on where the USPTO is headed. Further details on this session will be available shortly. For information and registration information, go to www.ficpi.org.

On 7 December 2009 a FICPI delegation consisting of Mr. Peter Huntsman (AU, President), Mr. Bastiaan Koster (ZA, Vice-president), Mr. Julian Crump (UK, Secretary General), Mr. Marc Chauchard (FR, Treasurer), Mr. Francesco Paolo Vatti (IT, Assistant Secretary General), Mr. Kazuaki Takami (JP, CET Vice-president), Mr. Arild Tofting (NO, CET Rapporteur Géneral) and Mr. David Bannerman (GB, immediate past president of the CET) met with officers of the JPAA to discuss questions of mutual interest and future cooperation.

The JPAA enjoys a young, increasing membership. According to their organisation, decisions are taken by a general assembly. JPAA’s structure also comprises several committees. Normally, membership of a committee lasts for one year, but membership of the JIAC (JPAA International Activities Committee) is for two years.

JIAC’s mission is to provide its members with information about what is going on in the rest of the world, as well as to exchange information with foreign associates, with the objective of facilitating procedures with colleagues in other countries. An important activity of JIAC is the preparation of opinions for submission to the JPO. The JIAC also manages an internationally oriented educational centre.

The history of patents in Japan is now 110 years old, and the FICPI delegation was informed that patents are still a growing business in Japan, especially with reference to work from abroad. The Japanese Patent Attorney Act has been amended four times.

JPAA has recently presented two papers to WIPO; one on the question of privilege for patent attorneys, which JPAA supports, and the other containing several ideas on harmonisation.

FICPI and JPAA closed their meeting with a discussion on the training for patent attorneys in Asia. JPAA has been organising an Asia seminar every two years since 2005, providing financial support and speakers; the next one should be in March 2011.  FICPI has conducted its own successful SEAD course for teaching the rudiments of patent drafting, which began in Singapore and which has also been organised more recently in Bangkok. The current course for 2010 is being conducted in Hong Kong.

On 7th December 2009, a delegation from FICPI, headed by our President Peter Huntsman, visited the Japanese Patent Office, where the delegation had the chance to talk to Commissioner Hosono, who expressed his interest in the work that FICPI does, especially its educational work in the Asian countries, like the successful SEAD course on patent drafting.

After the meeting with the Commissioner, the FICPI visitors had an opportunity to meet Deputy Commissioner Minami, who advised of his appreciation of the visits from FICPI, and his desire for candid views on the proposals that JPO were putting forward.

The JPO presented statistics showing that, up to 2007, the number of applications filed by foreigners in Japan had increased while the number of applications filed by Japanese had decreased. However, since then, both numbers had been decreasing slightly. In the same two year period, the number of first office actions had increased, tending to reduce the office’s backlog. There had also been a decrease in the number of new requests for examination.

The FICPI visitors were informed that the JPO had made the conditions for patenting medical inventions less severe, meaning that methods for gathering information from the human body are now considered to be patentable inventions, and new dosage and administration regimens for per se known medicines are now considered novel.

Another important change, effective on 29th January 2010, makes it possible to apply for prosecution under the PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) on the basis of a PCT application examined at one of the Trilateral offices (US, JPO, EPO). It does not matter if the PCT application has claimed priority or not, or where any priority-founding application has been filed. Statistics show that an application taking the PPH route has a much higher chance of getting granted.

The JPO has proposed amendments to the PCT system that contain two major items: the first would delay the ISR (International Search Report) until after the publication of the application, in order to take unpublished, earlier applications into account in the same search, and avoid the need for a later ‘top up’ search. The second would provide for the filing of third party observations. With regard to the first proposal the JPO has determined that in at least 6.5% percent of all applications secret prior art has played a role; in some technical fields this figure was more than 30%. With regard to the second proposal, the JPO saw benefit in reflecting third party observations in the ISR/WOISA.The JPO has invited FICPI to consider these proposals and to provide some feedback. Our members will hear more of these proposals, and FICPI's response, in future days.
 

FICPI has agreed to open participation in Session 7 of the Munich Forum, a high-level panel discussion on enforcement of domain name rights in a world of expanding top level domains, to those who wish to attend this session, but who may not be able to attend the entire Forum. This session, to be moderated by Peter Rindforth (SE), will feature presenters Dawn Osborne (GB), Nick Wood (ComLaude), Gabriel Leonardos (BR) and Jonathan Cohen (ICANN). Registration information for this session will be available shortly at www.ficpi.org