May 31, 2024
S. Korea-Japan-China Adopted “10-Year Vision for Trilateral IP Cooperation”
At the 9th South Korea-Japan-China Summit convened on May 27, 2024, the leaders of the three nations - Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China Li Chang – adopted the "10-Year Vision for Trilateral Intellectual Property (IP) Cooperation" as an Annex to the official Joint Declaration, and agreed to further strengthen the three-way cooperation in the IP sector for the next decade.
The Vision in particular stipulates the joint efforts on: establishing an IP system that can accommodate and embrace fast-changing technologies; enhancing public accessibility and encourage utilization of patent information by the private sector; and expanding IP cooperation beyond the three countries to include other countries or regions in order to share the valuable achievements which the three offices have made together in pursuit of "Trilateral+X IP Cooperation."
Together, Korea, Japan and China have a strong presence in the domain of intellectual property, which is well supported by the fact that patent applications filed in the nations account for about 62% of the world's total filing for 2022.
Knowing the importance of having a sound trilateral cooperation in the IP area, the heads of national IP offices, i.e. KIPO, JPO and CNIPA, have held a meeting annually every year since 2001 to discuss key issues and joint works in segments such as trademark examination, administrative trials, training, and so on. When the annual meeting convenes, the three offices organize a user symposium as well since 2013 in order to promote close and timely communications with inventors, innovators and other stakeholders.
"The fact that the 10-year vision for future IP cooperation was adopted at the trilateral Summit meeting holds a great significance to the Offices' and nations' efforts for promoting innovation-led economic development," KIM Si-Hyeong, Acting Commissioner of KIPO. "Our Office will do our best to ensure that the joint efforts we make with our Japanese and Chinese counterparts would produce concrete results for our users and stakeholders," added Mr. Kim.
*Attached hereto: "10-Year Vision for Trilateral Intellectual Property Cooperation"