IP5 agree to launch AI and emerging tech task force

Five of the largest patent offices in the world have agreed to create a task force dedicated to emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.

Senior officials from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and USPatent and Trademark Office (USPTO)—dubbed the IP5—agreed the annual task force during their annual meeting in Incheon, Korea.

The task force will expand new initiatives to match the changing technology landscape.

Also agreed at the meeting were plans to improve the IP5’s structure in order to achieve greater efficiency within the group’s overall cooperation.

Present at the meeting was KIPO commissioner Park Wonjoo, who chaired proceedings; EPO president António Campinos; JPO commissioner Naoko Munakata; CNIPA commissioner Shen Changyu; and USPTO director and under secretary of commerce for IP Andrei Iancu.

The director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Francis Gurry was also present at the meeting and acted as an observer.

The IP5 handle around 85 percent of the world’s patent applications.

EPO president António Campinos said that cooperation with other IP5 offices is “a key to building an efficient and effective global IP system by establishing more aligned procedures worldwide”.

He continued: “IP5 cooperation is a success story. The EPO and its partner offices are now entering a new phase of their cooperation where we should think about further strengthening IP5 co-operation and promoting a more comprehensive IP agenda, in order to better respond to our users’ needs who handle comprehensive IP portfolios with bundles of IP rights.”

The next IP5 heads of office meeting will be hosted by the CNIPA in 2020.