Washington – Today, a coalition of the world’s five largest patent offices – the IP5 – announced the release of the IP5 Statistics
Report 2011 Edition, which has been designed to facilitate an understanding of operations and patent procedures among the
Offices, while providing a means for gauging inventive activity, technology flow, and comparing procedures. The IP5 is comprised
of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO),
the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s
Republic of China (SIPO).
“As we continue to move forward with our global partners toward implementing an optimal 21st Century harmonized patent system,
the IP5 statistics report will provide valuable insight into our operations and procedures,” said the Under Secretary of Commerce
for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos.
The IP5 Offices, which together handle about 80% of the world’s patent applications, began meeting in 2007 and have since
worked together to explore ways to further optimize their joint efforts to improve quality and efficiency of the examination process
and to explore and optimize work sharing opportunities between the Offices.
The IP5 Statistics Report began in 1983 as a project of the Trilateral Cooperation – the EPO, the JPO, and the USPTO. In 2008,
the KIPO joined the effort and the first Four Office Statistics Report was produced. The 2011 IP5 Statistics Report represents a
milestone in IP5 cooperation encompassing the full cooperation of all the IP5 Offices including the SIPO, and the IP5 Offices intend
to continue holding discussions on statistics and improving the Statistics Report under the IP5 cooperation.
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