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Promotion

20 years of co-operation between the European - Patent Office and the patent offices of the USA and Japan

Munich/Vienna, 4 November 2002 - This week in Vienna, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will hold an international symposium to mark the twentieth anniversary of their trilateral co-operation. This event will form the high point of the annual Trilateral Conference of the three patent offices, which have been engaged in close co-operation on technical issues since 1983. The speakers will include Roland Grossenbacher, Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation; Ingo Kober, President of the EPO; Sinishiro Ota, Commissioner of the JPO; and Helmut Czuba, Vice-President of the Austrian Patent Office.

With their first Memorandum of Understanding, signed on 19 October 1983, the world's three largest patent offices established a basis for the development of worldwide patent structures and a global system of patent-assisted innovation and technology transfer. In their first joint projects, the focus was on strategies for dealing with the rapid growth in applications and on arrangements for data exchange between the three authorities, which handle around 80% of all patent applications filed. Many elements of this co-operation - including, in particular, the trilateral development of technical standards for the transfer of patent data, the use of databases for amino acid sequences, the setting-up of digital patent archives and patent information systems for the public and the technical harmonisation of patent practice - have already been incorporated in the everyday workings of the international patent system. For inventors and companies, these projects offer considerable gains in efficiency and cost savings in the implementation of their international patent strategies.

As well as reviewing past achievements, the symposium will address the future challenges facing the three patent offices in view of their growing workloads and the new expectations of users in a global economy. Apart from the heads of the patent offices, the speakers will include representatives of the patent profession and industry. A concert at the Eroica Hall will conclude the celebrations.

The symposium will take place on Thursday, 7 November 2002 at the Renaissance Penta Hotel, Ungargasse 60, Vienna.

Representatives of the media are cordially invited to attend.

For further information, see www.trilateral.net or contact :

Rainer Osterwalder,
EPO Press and Public Relations
D-80298 Munich,
e-mail: rosterwalder@epo.org,
Tel: +49 89/23 99-50 12.