[Ecommerce] Industrialised nations on patent harmonization

[Manon Ress]

http://www.uspto.gov/main/patlawharmonization.htm


     Working Group of Experts Holds Inaugural Meeting to Discuss
Substantive Patent Law Harmonization Issues

     On April 19 and 20, patent law experts from the industrialized
nations met at the European Patent Office headquarters in Munich,
Germany, to begin discussions on the elements of the Trilateral "first
package" concerning substantive patent law harmonization: definition of
prior art, grace period, novelty and non-obviousness. The meeting was
the first of the Working Group of Experts, which was established at the
February 2005 "Exploratory" Meeting Concerning the Future of Substantive
Patent Law Harmonization hosted by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. The following statement was adopted by the Working
Group at the conclusion of the meeting:

     The Working Group of Experts of industrialised nations considering
the substantive issues of the first package, set up by the meeting in
February 2005 in Washington, met on 19 and 20 April 2005 in Munich.

     The meeting was attended by delegations from Australia, Canada,
Japan, New Zealand, Norway and the United States of America, as well as
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the European
Commission and the European Patent Office. The meeting was chaired by Mr
Dave Herald, Deputy Commissioner of IPAustralia.

     The Working Group conducted discussions in an open and constructive
manner on the provisions concerning novelty, inventive step, grace
period and prior art drafted in the context of a first-to-file system.
In particular, a preliminary consensus within the experts' Working Group
was achieved for many provisions of the first package, such as Articles
8(1) and 12(2) as well as Rules 8, 9(1)(b), 9(2), 14, and 15(1) to (3)
of the draft SPLT as amended by the Group.

     Further work is required inter alia regarding the treatment of
conflicting applications and its ramifications and the features of a
possible grace period as well as a number of particular issues of
detail, where it is hoped that consensus can be achieved.

     The delegations reaffirmed their support for the harmonisation
process and expressed the view that work on the first package, as well
as the issues from the Working Group on IP and development, should
resume within WIPO at the earliest appropriate moment.

     The results of this meeting will be transmitted to the Plenary
meeting which will take place in Munich on 30 and 31 May 2005.




--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
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