International Activities
Information Search Committee: Proposal to WIPO on patent classification
and participation in the 69th PDG IMPACT Meeting
This is our second attendance at the PDG IMPACT Meeting, and through the following presentations and meetings, the delegation exchanged information with the PDG, a user organization of EPO, and an EPO officer in charge of classification to make the patent information environment more beneficial to Japanese companies.
In the visit to WIPO, the delegation proposed classification harmonization based on the results of research on the patent classification, which has been conducted by the Information Search Committee, and requested improvement in the concordance function among IPC, FI, and CPC provided by WIPO. In the visit to ip-search, the delegation exchanged opinions on patent search approaches.
1. Presentation at PDG IMPACT Meeting
In the meeting which JETRO attended from Japan in addition to EPO and PDG, the delegation introduced the holistic analysis results obtained by comparing CPC and FI based on the achievements of the JIPA Information Search Committee. The delegation shared the importance of the classification harmonization again with them and obtained an understanding of promotion of and cooperation in harmonization requesting activities in the future.Besides, the delegation introduced lectures associated with temporary training in CPC given by the Information Search Committee in training courses of JIPA in which Mr. Nelson Das Neves, an EPO officer in charge of classification, showed great interest. He made a proposal to visit Japan and carry out a CPC presentation along with JIPA in the future. The Information Search Committee plans to consider the realization of this proposal.
2. Visit to WIPO
The JIPA delegation talked with Mr. Takagi of WIPO, classification officers Mr. Antonios Farassopoulos and Mr. Ning Xu. The delegation stated expectations for future revision of IPC and requested addition of functions to the PatentScope. As for the expectations for future revision of IPC, the delegation proposed that because there is no other choice but to subdivide IPC in order to harmonize the two classification systems of FI and CPC, IPC should be subdivided early. Besides, as for the request for addition of functions to the PatentScope, the delegation showed the results of analysis of the correlation among CPC, FI, and IPC given to the family (results of research conducted by the Information Search Committee) and requested a functional improvement so that the classification concordance provided by WIPO may be indicated in consideration of the family grant viewpoint. The WIPO people agreed that the Information Search Committee would provide WIPO with bulk data of the results of the analysis research conducted by the Committee so that WIPO can utilize the research results.
3. Visit to ip-search (Bern University of Technology)
The delegation talked with Ms. Yvonne Schumacher of the Swiss Patent Office, and patent searchers of ip-search Mr. Markus Funk and Mr. Jochen Spuck. ip-search is an organization that conducts patent examination for the Swiss Patent Office while providing search services. This organization uses the EPO examiner database as a search tool, and the delegation exchanged opinions on the search method while actually observing the search method.Through the above activities, we shared information with PDG, delivered JIPA's opinions, introduced JIPA's activities, and strengthened the network with the European IP organizations. We will continue to exchange information with them regularly for a fruitful collaboration.
