Trilateral offices build support for “first package” approach to patent law harmonization discussions

The United States, Japan and Europe are working to overhaul the mechanism by which patent law harmonization discussions are held.  These countries recently received critical support for their joint proposal to change the course of harmonization discussions.

The US Patent and Trademark Office, along with other participants from the recent  Exploratory Meeting of Interested Parties Concerning the Future of Substantive Patent Law Harmonization, recently issued a statement of intent regarding future harmonization efforts.

According to the statement, the participating countries agreed to convene further meetings to consider the “trilateral first package,” a proposal made by the USPTO, the European Patent Office, and the Japan Patent Office to limit harmonization discussions to certain issues in an attempt to advance the effort.  The trilateral offices made the “first package” proposal because they view the current model for discussion of harmonization efforts as “not workable.”

The “first package” deals only with prior art issues.  Specifically, the definition of prior art, grace period, novelty, and non-obviousness/inventive step.  Interestingly, the first package proposal notes that, “since grace period and first-to-file are linked, grace period, although included in the first package for discussion, is subject to movement on first-to-invent.”

Participants at the USPTO meeting (and signatories to the Statement) include representatives from the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia.