The European Patent Office (EPO), the United
States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japanese Patent
Office (JPO), at the Fifteenth Trilateral Conference held in Kyoto
on November 13-14, 1997, agreed on the following conclusions:
Kyoto Action Plan
The three offices recognize that the globalization
of industry and trade creates the need for a world-wide system
for the grant of patents. The advantage of such a system for
the users of the patent system would be
- * reduction of costs
- * improved quality of granted patents
- * improved dissemination of patent information
- * reduced processing time in the patent granting
procedure
With these objectives in mind, the three offices
identify the following lines of action:
- Trilateral Patent Network
The three offices will develop between them a trilateral network
for data exchange concerning administrative and technical patent
data. (The Trilateral Patent network will be implemented in 1998.)
- Trilateral Concurrent Search and Examination
The three offices agreed to undertake further steps through collaboration
on concurrent searches concerning applications filed in each of
the three offices and improving search effectiveness by increased
reliance on each others search result for examination purposes.
(The concurrent search in 18 technical fields will start from
January 1998.)
- Trilateral Web Site
The three offices will promote the use of the internet to disseminate
patent information. They agree to study and prepare the concrete
implementation of a trilateral web site concept accessible free
of charge. (A working group on Internet information dissemination
will be set up and will report in February 1998.)
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