Cooperation in the Examination Process: Establishment of an Advanced Industrial Property Network (AIPN)

In order to handle the increasing backlog of requests for examination and to expedite the examination of a patent application that has been filed both in Japan and overseas, the JPO has been collaborating with intellectual property offices (IP offices) overseas to mutually utilize the results of the searches and examinations conducted on patent applications filed in Japan that are also filed overseas.

As part of this collaboration, in October 2004, the JPO established the Advanced Industrial Property Network (AIPN) through which examination information in the JPO and the results of searches conducted by JPO examiners are provided to IP offices overseas.

The purpose of the AIPN is to enable IP offices overseas to obtain in machine-translated English the following: file wrappers, examination-related documents, and information on the legal status of an application or a patent, thereby enabling Japanese applicants to more quickly obtain patents in other countries.

As of May 2017, the AIPN has been available in the following 69 locations: African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese-Taipei, Columbia, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, Egypt, Estonian Patent Office, Ethiopia, the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyz, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Myanmar,　Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, and Zambia.

[Last updated 23 May 2017]