CIPO Attains Enhanced International Status and Influence

OTTAWA, December 9, 2002 -- The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has been granted status as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The status was approved by members of the Patent Cooperation Treaty Union on September 27, 2002 at the annual meeting in Geneva of member states of WIPO. The expected starting date for the new status and commencement of ISA/IPEA services will be in the summer of 2004. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) will now begin training staff and putting in place the administrative processes necessary to carry out this new role.

As an ISA/IPEA, CIPO will be able to provide clients with greater access to the international patent system by helping them to acquire patent rights worldwide. This status will affirm Canada's position as a leading player within WIPO and establish a basis from which this country will become even more prominent on the international stage. It will also reinforce Canada's commitment to continued excellence in the area of service delivery to clients.

The acceptance of CIPO as an ISA/IPEA recognizes Canada's qualifications for this privilege. This vote of confidence requires a commitment on behalf of CIPO to continue to demonstrate that it meets and exceeds the demanding criteria to function as an ISA/IPEA under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (see Backgrounder).

More information on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office can be found at its Web site, http://www.cipo.gc.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Barney de Schneider
Canadian Intellectual Property Office
(819) 997-1947

Media Relations
Industry Canada
( 613) 943-2502

BACKGROUNDER

Impact of ISA/IPEA Status for CIPO

The global, knowledge-based economy of the 21st century depends on innovation and the investments that countries make in promoting the creativity and talents of their people. In recent years, intellectual property (IP), a fundamental pillar of the knowledge economy, has grown substantially in both importance and awareness. It's a fundamental lever of public policy, plays a pivotal role in stimulating economic growth and enhances social welfare on a global scale.

The timely granting of intellectual property rights supports and encourages innovation and the creative spirit. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is responsible for the administration of various intellectual property statutes governing patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs and integrated circuit topographies in Canada.

Intellectual property offices around the world are facing increased demand for products and services. Patent applications have risen at unprecedented rates worldwide, leading to growing backlogs and workloads for national authorities, including those in Canada. In 2001, Canada received some 40 000 patent applications, an increase of almost 50 percent from the number received five years earlier.

These developments have led Canada to examine its role in the global IP community -- and the service levels provided to Canadian applicants. As a result of this exercise, CIPO has become increasingly committed to building an internal functional capacity within the organization and business lines to meet the highest standards of excellence and service. Canada has also assumed international leadership and cooperation roles that reflect its rising prominence and status among global IP offices.

The rapid development of the patent system has been mirrored by the extraordinary success of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The PCT, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is designed to facilitate the acquisition of patent protection in multiple countries around the world. Benefits of the PCT are only available to nationals of the 117 contracting states of the PCT. These benefits have been available to Canadians since 1990.

The PCT is a multilateral treaty which facilitates the process of obtaining patent protection for inventions in multiple countries through the filing of a single international application. Such an application has the same effect as a national patent application filed in each of the designated states. However, the granting of a patent remains the responsibility of the national offices.

Under the PCT, international applications are subjected to a search by an International Searching Authority (ISA). Patent applicants can then seek to obtain patents in a large number of countries, whose national offices may benefit from these search and examination reports.

The international application is then subjected to an international search, which is conducted by one of 10 International Searching Authorities (ISAs). The current ISAs are the patent offices of Australia, Austria, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, and the European Patent Office.

The ISA produces a report which contains citations of published documents relevant to the patentability of the invention claimed in the international application, but no comments or opinions related to patentability.

The applicant also has the option of requesting an international preliminary examination report conducted by one of nine International Preliminary Examining Authorities (IPEAs); these are all the ISAs except for Spain's patent office. In addition to the international search, the international preliminary examination report provides a preliminary, non-binding opinion on the patentability of the claimed invention.

Currently, the European Patent Office (EPO) conducts both ISA and IPEA services for Canadian PCT applicants on a cost-recovery basis.

Canadian patent applicants, like most worldwide, have embraced the PCT system. In 2001, there was a 16 percent increase in the number of PCT applications filed in Canada, compared to the 14 percent growth experienced by the International Bureau at WIPO over the same period.

CIPO meets the PCT requirements to function as an International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority (ISA/IPEA) under the PCT on the basis of the following attributes:

• a highly qualified, competent and growing corps of patent examiners, with bilingual, sometimes trilingual language capabilities;
  
  
• a modern and efficient automated patent processing system, supported by a forward-thinking and comprehensive information technology infrastructure;
  
  
• a vast collection of patent documents and online resources that permit patent examiners to conduct comprehensive searches of relevant documentation; and
  
  
• an organizational commitment to the pursuit of excellence in client service delivery.

It is anticipated that CIPO's new status and commencement of its new ISA/IPEA services will begin in the summer of 2004.