'Big Five' aim to boost efficiency

The heads of the world's five largest intellectual property offices are meeting in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on Wednesday to explore further increasing the efficiency of their work.

The State Intellectual Property Office of China, European Patent Office, Japan Patent Office, Korean Intellectual Property Office and United States Patent and Trademark Office between them handle about 80 percent of the world's patent applications.

The meeting is designed to take stock of the unnecessary duplication of work among the offices, improve the efficiency and quality of patent examinations, and guarantee the stability of patent rights.

This year, the five offices are expected to sign an agreement on providing better services to the public, especially to small businesses and individual users, in a bid to reinforce IP's role in innovation-driven development, according to the meeting organizers.

The five major IP powerhouses have conducted "fruitful" cooperation over the past eight years, improving the convenience, quality and efficiency of patent filings and related information sharing and use.

Their partnership has focused on users' needs since interaction with representatives of the business communities in the five regions was added to the IP meeting in 2012.

This year, the delegates are discussing a wide range of issues, including quality control in processing patent filings, statistics, automation and patent documentation.

The State Intellectual Property Office of China will also release an online patent examination system at this year's event that will use cloud-computing technologies to handle filings.

"It is encouraging that the meeting is taking place in one of the most vibrant cities in China - Suzhou, Jiangsu province," Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said in a written interview.

He suggested that the IP "Big Five" should seek to harmonize international patent law between them, adding that China can fuel its ambitious "Made in China 2025' and "Internet Plus" agendas through active participation in the meeting.

The "Internet Plus" and "Made in China 2025" are two of China's major development strategies aimed at improving the economy and upgrading industrial development with advanced technologies.

"China also needs to move beyond legislation," Wuttke said. "The EU business community in China expects a robust implementation of the country's IP laws."

Fan Zhiyong, vice-president of IP strategy at Huawei, a leading Chinese telecommunications giant, said he expects increased cooperation between the five offices especially for transnational patent filings.

Other Chinese corporate executives participating in the event voiced their concerns about the repetition in procedures required by the different offices.

"If they could streamline the processing procedures and reduce repetitive work, the costs of international filings would drop a lot," Zheng Yongfeng, general counsel of Tasly Holding Group, a high-tech company involved in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, said.

"The issue is still under discussion, and I hope the discussions will produce concrete results," he added.

Li Yingyan, a senior patent attorney at Lung Tin IP Agent Ltd, said a growing number of Chinese filers are exploring the US, EU, South Korean and Japanese markets and the procedure issue is of great importance to these adventurers abroad.

Zhang Qichen, IP manager at ZTE Corp, another leader in the telecommunications sector in China, said he hoped the meeting will provide more cases for business representatives to learn about different systems overseas.

Zhang's colleague Zhou Xianyan, said while the rules in the intellectual property sphere were formulated by developed countries, opinions from China are gaining more attention.

Sun Bin, director of patent at BOE technology Group, said China now has a greater voice in the international IP landscape, and the meeting helps the different parties involved seek mutually beneficial solutions.

Wang Huan, senior patent counsel of the IP Department at Tencent, one of China's most popular Internet service portals, said exchanging views with the representatives of other Chinese companies at the meeting will help inspire future innovations by the company.

This is the second time the "Five Heads" meeting has taken place in China, after the first was held in Guilin, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in 2010.

wangxin@chinadaily.com.cn