In the Trilateral Policy Dialogue Meeting held among the JPO, the KIPO and the SIPO in March 2009, the Three Offices agreed to establish a Joint Experts Group for Patent Examination (JEGPE), which would become the framework for Patent Examination Cooperation. The first meeting of the JEGPE was held in November 2009, and the Three Offices agreed to conduct a comparative study on laws and examination guidelines.
Based on this agreement, the Three Offices conducted a comparative study on laws and examination guidelines concerning inventive step in 2010. In December 2010, the study results (titled “Comparative Study Report on Inventive Step”) were compiled and published on this website,
The “Comparative Study Report on Inventive Step” consists of a Comparison Outline that lists laws and examination guidelines at each office under items on a table, and a Comparative Analysis that analyzes and discusses similarities and differences of laws and examination guidelines at each office item by item among the Offices in terms of inventive step.
In 2011, the JPO, the KIPO and the SIPO conducted a Comparative Case Study on Inventive Step. In this study, each office evaluated inventive step in five common cases, and discussed based on their respective evaluation results.
The outcome of this initiative is the “Comparative Case Study on Inventive Step” reflecting the results of the evaluations that each Office made concerning inventive step and the subsequent discussions based on their respective evaluation results. This “Comparative Case Study on Inventive Step” has been completed and is now available on this website(See below).
It is the hope of the Three Offices that both of these reports will help you gain a better understanding on different views concerning inventive step at the Three Offices.
| Original Report in English | (Japanese Translation for Reference) |
|---|---|
| “Comparative Study Report on Inventive Step (JPO-KIPO-SIPO)” (published in December 2010) <PDF 465KB> |
“Comparative Study Report on Inventive Step (JPO-KIPO-SIPO)” (published in January 2011) <PDF 650KB> |
| “Comparative Case Study on Inventive Step” (published in December 2011) <PDF 663KB> |
“Comparative Case Study on Inventive Step” (published in December 2011) <PDF 800KB> |
In 2012, the Three Offices are planning to conduct both a comparative study on laws and examination guidelines concerning novelty and a case study on novelty.
(For your reference)
The Trilateral Offices, namely the JPO, the USPTO and the EPO, have already conducted such comparative studies and have published the results.
Follow the easy instructions included with Acrobat Reader software to install Acrobat Reader on your computer. Then, click any PDF file to view, navigate, or print it!
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[Last updated 7 February 2012]
