Edward Kwakwa, Assistant Director General of WIPO welcomed a FICPI delegation, led by FICPI President, Julian Crump, and FICPI was particularly thanked for its contributions to WIPO’s initiatives for World IP Day this year.
The meeting included a discussion of FICPI’s collaboration with WIPO on an International Patent Drafting Course, various issues under discussion in the SCT (including possible special protection for country names, the draft Design Law Treaty), the Madrid and Hague systems and the PCT (including the outcome of a Working Group meeting that had just finished).
Interesting and informative discussions took place on a range of practical issues suggested by FICPI’s Study & Work Committee (known by its French acronym, CET).
Colour drawings in patent applications
In this regard, we enquired about progress on the adoption of colour drawings in patent applications - a key issue for many of our members and which FICPI has been lobbying IP Offices on since its 2015 Resolution "Patent Figures in Colour". We were informed that this matter is under active discussion amongst IP Offices.
In addition, Jérôme Collin had an opportunity to present FICPI’s recent work on substantive patent law harmonisation, which seemed to be of great interest to WIPO. These discussions will be followed up with smaller working meetings in the coming months – a new paradigm facilitated by the increased use of videoconferencing.
The Director-General of WIPO, Daren Tang, joined the last part of the meeting and had a conversation with Julian Crump on a number of hot topics in IP – this conversation will be reported in full in due course.
FICPI’s view and involvement
Next steps
- Get involved or find out more about FICPI’s Study & Work Committees on topics from designs to international patents, and trade marks.