On Tuesday 16 July 2024 the Coordination Committee convened (observers not included).
We then joined the Group B+ Plenary Meeting in the afternoon on Tuesday. This meeting was held in two parts, Part I with the User Associations, and Part II restricted only to the Group B+ Delegations.
The AU delegation is now taking the leadership of the Group B+ Core Group on CAP. They gave a review of the present situation. At least for now it is considered that a soft law approach would not address the issue. The next steps will be to analyse stakeholder responses to the consultation on the Draft Agreement & Explanatory Report. CA announced its interest to join the Core Group.
The IP Federation noted that the Agreement should also cover patent attorneys in industry. This was supported by BusinessEurope and AIPLA.
The Chair, Mr Pascal Faure, then introduced the SPLH topic and gave the floor to AIPPI for starting the presentation on the AIPPI/FICPI/AIPLA Colloquium held in Munich on 5-7 June 2024.
AIPPI presented the Colloquium arrangements and emphasized the caveat that the Colloquium followed Chatham rules and that no views should be attributed to any of the organising associations nor the participants. This was followed by a very rapid review of the agenda and topics discussed, presented by AIPLA. It was noted that a summary of the Colloquium is under preparation. FICPI then introduced some possible avenues for their further work considering some of the ideas that came up at the Colloquium.
The Chair and various delegation commended the Colloquium and appreciated the willingness to compromise and flexibility that was apparent from the presentations on the Colloquium. The diverse “global” attendance was also found valuable. There were clear suggestions that a follow-up[1] would be appreciated.
This was followed by a presentation by the EPO on European alignment exercise. It was noted that no grace period is available in the EPC member states. Furthermore, there are a multitude of prior art regimes. However, there seems to be almost 80% support for a safety net Grace Period system. The Committee on Patent Law (CPL) is now carrying out an alignment discussion without observers. A large case law study will be initiated. No schedule for completion could yet be announced. Europe will not present a package to be adopted as such but will rather attempt to identify a best practice solution for Europe, open to compromise.
This was followed by a presentation by the Group B+ Voluntary Working Group on SPLH chaired by the UK. The WG is preparing an analysis of the feedback from the user meetings that have been held. Two main indications were put forward: (i) users prefer their own systems, e.g. on conflicting applications; and (ii) gaps exist in PUR evidence – particularly scope. It was noted that support for SPLH is very high – 93% - and that over 65% are happy to acknowledge that compromise will be necessary to achieve SPLH.
BusinessEurope and JIPA noted their continued work in the IT3 on the SPLH issue since 2014 expressing the need for a overall package as well as that they will continue working on an overall package (no timetable identified).
The IP Federation stated that the IT3 had worked for 10 years already, this pace should not continue. Further they noted that the industry is used to working with different systems, e.g. conflicting applications, whereby they are very flexible regarding any solution.
The Chair closed Part I of the meeting noting appreciation of the user organisation work, particularly the Colloquium, and called for compromise and flexibility.
FICPI’s view and involvement
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Next steps
- Consider becoming involved with FICPI's Study & Work Committees, with groups ranging from designs to international patents, and biotechnology & pharmaceuticals.
- Read our report from the 64th General Assemblies.
Photo: Copyright: WIPO. Photos: Emmanuel Berrod. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.