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Participation at WIPO PCT-WG 8th Session

A session of the PCT Working Group (PCT-WG) was held at WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland, during May 26 to 29, 2015.
Mr. Yoshioka (NEC), chairperson of JIPA 2nd International Committee, Mr. Hata (Panasonic Healthcare), vice chairperson of the Committee, and Mr. Ueki (Furukawa Electric), member of the Committee took part in the session and expressed opinions from the standpoint of the Japanese industry.

This PCT-WG session is an international conference where representatives of the governments of the member states, international organizations, and user organizations meet together and talk in advance about agenda items to be proposed to the PCT General Assembly. This session has been held since 2008, and this year's session is the 8th session.

This year's session asked for opinions from all the positions involved in the system, i.e., developed and developing countries as well as governments and users about various issues of the current system and efforts to solve the issues, mainly including (1) measures for improving various procedures at the international stage for future development of the PCT system, (2) proposals for improvement in the PCT rules for the purpose of simplification of procedures and sophistication of information described in view of the recent technological progress and communication situations, and reached a consensus among the member states.

JIPA participated in the discussion from the perspective of an appropriate development of the PCT system which provides benefits to both the Patent Offices and users. Especially for item (1), JIPA expressed expectations for the collection and publication of data on effects on users with regard to a review of the supplementary international search system toward improvement in quality of the international search. For item (2), JIPA expressed expectations for indication of information in an integrated fashion and distribution of accurate information on the patent search website "PATENTSCOPE" and the like with regard to the transition from the international to the national phase. These contents were also clearly noted in the Summary by the Chair.

This time, a meeting of the PCT Committee for Technical Cooperation (PCT-CTC) was also held during the period of the Working Group session. The meeting discussed the appropriateness of the appointment of the Visegrad Patent Institute as an International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority, and resulted in formation of support by CTC. Accordingly, the same will be proposed to the PCT General Assembly scheduled for this fall, which will discuss the adoption thereof.

The next PCT-WG session will be held during the same period in 2016 and continue to discuss the agenda items of the present session in detail. JIPA will continue to express our opinions as a user group that the world counts on toward an appropriate development of the PCT system.

[Update 2015-07-28 ]