Unified PPH Request Form Adopted by 19 PPH Authorities

(SIPO) To offer a more convenient patent prosecution highway (PPH) request procedure for applicants, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) joined other intellectual property (IP) authorities involved in the PPH program to design a unified PPH request form. By June 30, 2017, the template has been applied by related IP departments of 19 countries and regions including China, Europe, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Israel, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Australia, the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Egypt.

At this point, PPH request forms submitted by applicants to PPH offices of the abovementioned countries or regions have similar styles and entries despite language differences, thus facilitating the filing of the form and material preparation for submitting a request.

Launch of Patents Open Dossier in Singapore: IPOS

(IPOS) The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore launched the Patents Open Dossier (POD) on 24 Jul 2017 to provide a single point of access for innovators to access published patent documents. A new addition to the suite of services available on IP2SG – IPOS’ e-service portal – POD provides the public with easy access to a collection of published patent documents. This includes search reports, office actions and responses to written opinion relating to published patent applications lodged on or after 14 Feb 2014 under the positive grant system, among many others.

With POD, users can expect to view, monitor and manage the patent profiles for applications of interest. Other key benefits of POD also include enhanced transparency of the patent system through more access to file prosecution histories as well as reduced time and costs for users to retrieve patent information. This online service will drive higher productivity for work sharing via a single platform for search and examination results to be disseminated among other IP offices.

Taiwanese Investment in Indonesia in Q1 2017 Surpasses Total for 2016

Taiwan’s vice-minister of economic affairs Wang Mei-hua stated earlier this month that Taiwanese investment in Indonesia in Q1 of 2017 stood at US$224 million, which has already surpassed the total investment last year of US$149 million, suggesting that the New Southbound Policy has led to closer cooperation between the two countries.

Wang made the comments at a conference in Taipei held by the Indonesian representative office in Taipei.

Indonesia is the second-largest target for Taiwanese investment in Southeast Asia.

He Zhimin Addresses Seminar on China-ASEAN IP Management and Utilization in Beijing

(SIPO) Recently, the Seminar on China-ASEAN IP Management and Utilization co-organized by the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat was held in Beijing. SIPO deputy commissioner He Zhimin attended the seminar and delivered a speech.

He Zhimin said that SIPO has always attached great importance to the friendly cooperation with the ASEAN secretariat and its member countries. Since 2005, with the platform of the China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund, SIPO has organized IP training programs and seminars. Through these programs, SIPO hoped to strengthen mutual understanding on IP systems and best practices of IP offices in this region and promote experience and information exchanges. He also commented that the ASEAN is an important regional organization in Asia. China's IP development highly values the efficiency of improving IP management and commercialization. The seminar this time was aimed to have in-depth exchanges with ASEAN countries on IP management and utilization.

On the four-day seminar, participants conducted discussions surrounding nine themes including the strategy and role of government in facilitating IP management and intellectual property rights (IPR) license and transfer. Officials and experts from the ASEAN Secretariat and IP authorities of ASEAN member countries, and representatives from China's IP authorities and the IP industry, all together about 40 people attended the seminar.

Invention Patent Applications in South Korea Down 4% in H1 2017

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) recently released the H1 statistics for patent applications and registrations and trademark registrations for 2017.

Invention patent applications in June totaled 16,711, design patent applications totaled 5,617, utility model applications totaled 725 and trademark applications totaled 16,553. Invention patent applications in the first half of 2017 totaled 92,470, down 4% year on year; utility model patent applications totaled 3,425, down 11.2% year on year; design patent applications totaled 30,833, down 5.4% year on year; trademark applications totaled 89,558, down 2.2% year on year.

Patent grants totaled 60,384, up 13.8% year on year; utility model grants totaled 1,542, up 6.7% and design grants totaled 24,176, down 16.3% year on year.

China's New Priority Examination System To Go Online in August

China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) will launch its priority examination scheme on August 1, resulting from an amendment to relevant regulations, expanding the applicable range for priority examination. The original regulations were only applicable to invention patent applications, not utility model patent applications and design patent applications and they didn't apply to patent reexaminations and patent invalidation requests. The new regulations apply to invention patents applications undergoing substantive examination, utility model and design patent applications, invention, utility model and design patent reexamination, as well as invalidation requests for invention, utility model and design patents, making for a more complete priority examination system.

The new regulations have also simplified the procedure for priority examination for the convenience of applicants and to reduce the number of documents they have to submit, as well as raising efficiency. Applicants no longer need to hand in a search report, but only need to provide prior art or prior design information; In some situations, a recommendation from the relevant department of the State Council or the provincial-level Intellectual Property Office can also be waived. In addition the new regulations have improved the procedure for handling priority examination, setting different office action response limits and conclusion limits according to patent type, in order to improve patent examination quality.

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