REPORT OF THE PATENTS COMMITTEE MEETING IN FUKUOKA

The meeting of the Patents Committee was held in Navis A, 1st Floor of Sea Hawk Hotel in Fukuoka, Japan on October 25 (Monday), 2004 from 9:00 until noon

Attendees:

1) Co-Chairpersons: Motohiko Fujimura (Japan),

Patrick Yang-Oh Kim (Korea)

2) 3２ Committee Members from:

Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia

New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and

Vietnam

3) More than 120 number of observers

Contents:

1.  Co-Chairperson Motohiko Fujimura announced the opening of the meeting and suggested the respective attendees to introduce themselves in sequence.

2.  Mr. Fujimura outlined the agenda which had been previously distributed throughout the committee members.

3.  Group Reports:

Group reports were distributed throughout the committee members and observers before commencement of the committee meeting and no oral explanation on the reports was done in the committee meeting.

4.  Reports on Recent Developments on Global Patent Harmonization

4-1) Mr. Takaaki KIMURA reported on the history of the Patent Harmonization while reviewing the Paris Convention (1883), PCT (1978), an old Patent Harmonization Treaty (1984 – 1990), PLT (1995 – 2000) and SPLT (2000 – present).

4-2) Mr. Takao OCHI reviewed the reformed PCT. He focused on the merits and demerits of the newly adopted document of the International Search Opinion (ISO) which is always issued together with the International Search Report (ISR).

He pointed out a possibility to modify the reformed International Preliminary Examination to issue a second written opinion in case an amendment is filed in response to the ISR.

4-3) Mr. Shigeyuki NAGAOKA reviewed the reformed PCT and explained two major points in the particular reform. One point is a new international search and preliminary examination system in which ISO is issued in all PCTs and called EISPE system. The other point is a new designation system, i.e., all-inclusive designation system.

4-4) Ms. Kay KONISHI made clear a position of SPLT within the Patent Harmonization Framework wile reviewing the draft articles of the SPLT. She further pointed out current issues which are unsettled. Finally, she discussed possible impact of SPLT adoption to Asian countries.

5.  Discussion & APAA Resolution on SPLT Discussion

APAA Japan group presented a draft resolution by APAA on SPLT which had been actually distributed throughout the committee members before the Fukuoka meeting. Mr. Kenji Asai of Japan Group explained the draft Resolution. After that, all the committee member are involved in their discussion on the patent harmonization and the draft resolution. Within the discussion, an Indian committee member raised some concern on the draft resolution because the Indian current patent law includes an article requiring an indication of an origin of a genetic resource within the patent specification. However, against such concern was made such an argument that it is not generally required in any country to indicate of the origin of an oil in the specification in case of a chemical product.

Various arguments were made but finally all the committee member approved the draft resolution.

6.  Final Version of APAA Resolution

The draft resolution approved by the patens Committee was presented before the APAA Council Board on October 27, 2004 and it was adopted by the Council Board.

７．Attachments:

7-1) Group Reports

7-2) “History and Meaning of Patent Harmonization” prepared by Mr. Takaaki KIMURA

7-3) “Review of Effect in reform of PCT” prepared by Mr. Tkao OCHI

7-4) “Current and Future PCT” prepared by Mr. Shigeyuki NAGAOKA

7-5) “Patent Harmonization: Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) aspect” prepared by Kay KONISHI

7-6) Final Version of APAA Resolution

1/2