January 04, 2019
Korea-China-Japan Trilateral Cooperation Expands to Trademark
The 18th TRIPO Heads Meeting among the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) was held on December 13, 2018 in Wuhan, China. The meeting was chaired by Mr. SHEN Changyu, Commissioner of CNIPA and attended by Mr. PARK Won-Joo, Commissioner of KIPO and Ms. MUNAKATA Naoko, Commissioner of JPO.
At the meeting, the commissioners of the three offices had in-depth discussions on various topics regarding trilateral cooperation activities in the field of intellectual property (IP), and for the first time, agreed to expand the current cooperation to include the field of trademark.
The said agreement bears special significance as it was made in the face of substantial increase in trade volumes in the Northeast Asia region and the resulting growing importance of protection for trademarks. Also playing into factor was the recent reorganization of the Chinese government that has now put trademark affairs under the umbrella of the CNIPA.
Based on this new development, it is well anticipated that KIPO will be better able to build a relationship with the CNIPA that is broader, deeper and stronger in the area of trademark. This is particularly important for Korean companies which have high demand for the Korea-China bilateral cooperation.
Meanwhile, the three commissioners also agreed to strengthen the existing cooperation not only on design and education but also concerning patent trial and appeal between the three countries. The parties recognized that the rising amount of international IP disputes requires the three offices to work more closely with one another so as to address the disputes more effectively.
In his remarks, Commissioner Park said that the three countries, together, accounted for about 60% of the patent applications from the world and about 47% of the patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT); and therefore, could be regarded as the largest economic bloc when it comes to patents.
“Through close cooperation and positive competition the three offices need to keep moving forward to turn the East Asia into the most innovation-friendly ecosystem in the world” highlighted Commissioner Park.