On December 3, 2019, a delegation of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Europe visited the EAPO headquarters. The delegation was headed by Director General of JPO Patent and Design Department Toshio Taniyama.

EAPO President Saule Tlevlessova welcomed the delegation and specified that the cooperation within Asian region is one of the EAPO priorities, and JPO is the key and longstanding partner of EAPO.

President Tlevlessova emphasized that JPO was the first patent office with which EAPO launched the pilot Patent Prosecution Highway Programme (PPH Program). As part of a joint examiners exchange program between EAPO and JPO, reliable professional relations have been formed.

President Tlevlessova presented statistics on the use of the Eurasian patent procedure by Japanese applicants to protect their innovations in the EAPC Contracting States, expressing concern about the low dynamics of activity of Japanese applicants in recent years.

Toshio Taniyama noted that JPO follows with interest the EAPO activities and the creation of the Eurasian system of industrial designs legal protection. He also informed about the efforts of JPO to develop IP legislation, the features of examination of industrial design applications, introduced the activities to promote the IP institution among small and medium-sized enterprises, including the reducing fees for this category of applicants, creating a special startup promotion department in JPO.

The participants of the meeting discussed the positive results of the PPH Pilot Programme and, taking into account the experience gained and mutual confidence in the quality of work results, expressed their readiness to extend the PPH programme indefinitely.

The JPO delegation supported the EAPO proposal to continue the examiners exchange program to study the patent practice in such most actively developing fields as pharmaceuticals, information and communication technologies, and approaches to assessing the patentability of such subject matters.

"We fully share your attitude towards strengthening cooperation between our offices," Mr. Taniyama said at the end of the meeting.