Progress on Discussions to Harmonize Patent Law
Geneva, May 14, 2002
Press Updates UPD/2002/164
Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) meeting in Geneva last week, reaffirmed their commitment to further harmonization of substantive patent laws on a worldwide level. The Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), which met from May 6 to 10, 2002, considered revised provisions of the draft Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT). The Committee was attended by representatives from 77 WIPO member states, four intergovernmental organizations and 22 non-governmental organizations.
The draft SPLT covers a number of basic legal principles that govern the grant and the validity of patents in different countries of the world, such as the definition of prior art, novelty, inventive step (non-obviousness), industrial applicability (utility), sufficiency of disclosure, and the structure and interpretation of claims.
The present international landscape of patent law and practice is currently made up of a wide variety of legal regimes. The elimination or reduction of these divergences would ensure that applicants, in all contracting parties of the SPLT, are subject to the same substantive conditions for the grant of patents and for the invalidation of granted patents. Such harmonization would lead to lower costs for applicants and patent offices by contributing to a future reduction in the duplication of search and examination work.
The focus of the SCP's work has been to improve mutual understanding by identifying the commonalities and differences that exist among various patent systems. SCP members made progress on a number of issues by agreeing in principle on draft provisions on the right to a patent, and the scope of application of the SPLT. Requirements to determine sufficient disclosure, novelty and inventive step/non-obviousness also received large support in principle. Issues such as the scope of patentable subject matter and possible exclusions from patentability, require further consideration.
The Working Group on Multiple Invention Disclosures and Complex Applications, established at the previous session of the SCP, met for the first time on May 7 and 8, 2002. The Working Group is designed to improve mutual understanding among patent offices of a number of different existing practices.
The next session of the SCP is tentatively scheduled to take place in the second half of November 2002.
The work of the SCP on harmonization of substantive patent law is being undertaken within the context of WIPO's Patent Agenda which is designed to spearhead discussions on the future evolution of the international patent system. The SCP meeting comes on the heels of a meeting of the Working Group on the Reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) from April 29 to May 3, 2002. Delegates attending this meeting discussed a number of proposals to simplify and streamline PCT procedures, including the concept and operation of the designation system, improved coordination of international search and international preliminary examination and the time limit for entering the national phase (see PCT/R/WG/2/12). Recommendations from this meeting will be submitted to the Committee on Reform of the PCT which is tentatively scheduled to take place from July 1 to 5, 2002.
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