297. The United States of America thanks Japan for drafting this paper on cross-border cooperation among IP offices, and we thank Members for engagement on this important topic. Cross-border cooperation between our IP offices is one of the best ways we can seek to improve IP systems for the benefit of all. The US Patent and Trademark Office engages in extensive cooperation with IP offices around the world. Such cooperation includes experience sharing regarding examination, research collaboration in economic research, exchanges of information regarding IT systems and tools, and establishing a telework environment.
298. The USPTO has also collaborated and shared information with other offices in meeting challenges like handling increased filing periods or responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it be by extending deadlines or accelerating examination for COVID-19 related products. Several of those initiatives have been shared here in this Council. In broad terms, the USPTO maintains several memoranda of understanding with foreign IP offices, which underpin a lot of our cooperation. For example, we maintain a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which features ongoing cooperation between operations divisions on trademark and patent examination efficiencies. We also have MOUs with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, the Department of Intellectual Property of the Kingdom of Bhutan, the Department for the Promotion of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT) in India, and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP). These are just few examples of the cooperations we maintain. We recently signed an MOU with the IP office of Ecuador, and recently renewed a memorandum with the IP office of Chile for an additional four years. With the IP office of Panama, we have completed a Joint Statement of Intent on Cooperation on Accelerating the Grant of Panama-Related Patent Applications.
299. The USPTO also has significant cooperation with the IP office in Brazil, which includes ongoing information exchanges on a variety of administration and operation topics, including telework, performance management, and quality management, as well as quarterly patent technical calls. Such cooperation may include sending or receiving representatives from or to the foreign offices to observe an office's operations first-hand. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the USPTO has also developed customized educational webinars in support of trademark examination operations for a variety of countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Haiti.
300. On IP enforcement, the USPTO collaborates with other IP offices in educating consumers about the dangers of counterfeit goods and reducing the demand for these goods. For example, the USPTO makes its "Go for Real" public awareness anti-counterfeiting campaign materials available to other IP offices, and Mexico's IP office, IMPI has been able to adapt those materials for their own public awareness campaign.
301. The USPTO is also an active participant in IP5, ID5, and TM5:
The IP5 launched in 2007 as a forum for the world's five largest patent offices (China, EU, Korea, and Japan) to exchange views and identify opportunities for cooperation with regard to common challenges, including patent examination workloads, backlogs, patent quality, and inefficiencies in the international patent system. At its annual meetings, it also meets with industry and stakeholders to hear their views.
The Industrial Design Forum (ID5) brings together the five largest industrial design offices in the world: the China National IP Office (CNIPA), the European Union IP Office (EUIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the USPTO.
TM5 (Trademark 5) is the name given to a forum of the world's five largest trademark offices. Its mission is to promote cooperation and collaboration among its members. The partners of TM5 exchange information on practices and programs that facilitate increasingly user-friendly and, if possible, interoperable trademark systems. Projects undertaken by TM5 — such as the TM5 ID List and Common Status Descriptors — aim at harmonization and improvement of trademark procedures. Other projects, such as Combatting Bad Faith Trademark Filings and Describing Goods and Services, aim to compare the practices of the partner offices.
302. In terms of cooperation among IP offices that would provide additional benefit, USPTO believes that reciprocal recognition of the validity of priority information for patents and trademarks found on an office's publicly offered website, would be beneficial. In trademarks, reciprocal recognition of the acceptability of classification and identification of products and services in trademark applications would be valuable, such as those found in the ID list maintained by the TM5 partners. The benefits of cooperation among offices are numerous. Many IP offices face similar challenges, and the information sharing that occurs between offices can offer valuable solutions. Cooperation and communication benefits IP office operations, and ultimately stakeholders, by clearing up misconceptions and conveying procedural and substantive details directly between the experts.
