The European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) met at the 29th Trilateral
Conference in Paris, France, on 10 November 2011:
Reconfirming their commitment to Trilateral co-operation based oncommon recognition of the role of industrial property as a basic system
supporting the progress of industry, technology, and international
economic growth,Identifying timely processing of increasing workloads of patentapplications and high quality examination processes as common
objectives of the Trilateral Offices and its user communities,

Acknowledging the benefits of promoting reduction of processing times
and reducing or eliminating redundant work through a co-ordinatedTrilateral approach,

Recognising the benefits of promoting the improvement of the quality ofincoming applications as a means to reduce Office workloads,



Reaffirming the significance of the IP5 Co-operation and its foundation
projects,

Noting the importance of enhancement of the cooperation between theTrilateral Offices and its user communities,

Understanding the benefits of harmonising patent law and procedures,

Recognising the benefits of developing common infrastructure andcompatible data for electronic business systems and search tools,

Reaffirming the value of patent information as means for raising thequality of applications filed,Highlight the following as major achievements of the common efforts of thethree Offices this year:Completed the development of the Common Citation Document
platform for full production use, as well as the required exchange ofcitation data between the Trilateral Offices



Evaluated the results of the FLASH and JP-FIRST work sharing
initiatives.

Completed all outstanding Classification Harmony Projects thus
entrusting future classification harmonisation to IP5 Working Group 1Completed Phases 1 and 2 of a study of the quality of International
Search Reports

Presented their respective positions on XML standardisation on which
the future roadmap will be based.

Agreed to make further contributions for international discussions
towards Harmonisation of patent laws and procedures.

Furthermore, understand as follows:
1. Work Sharing (Project WM1)
The Trilateral Offices reaffirmed their commitment to further development of thevarious work sharing initiatives in order to maximise reuse of each office's work
products to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their own search andexamination. The Trilateral Offices will continue to explore possible
methodology thereof.
(a) Patent Prosecution Highway
The Trilateral Offices agreed to extend the PPH pilot using the PCT work
products, recognising the Patent Prosecution Highway as an important elementof Trilateral work sharing activities and for strengthening the PCT. As for theindividual PPH programmes, the EPO agreed with the JPO and the USPTO toextend their respective bilateral PPH pilot programmes, which will include
piloting aspects of the MOTTAINAI and PPH 2.0 principles. A joint study onquality metrics of the PPH pilots will be carried out.
(b) Prioritisation of First Filings
Whereas prioritisation of first filings is standard practice for the EPO, the JPO
has realized the concept of SHARE in the JP-FIRST initiative. The USPTO has
undertaken a pilot project known as FLASH to test the feasibility of balancing
and prioritising workloads to maximise re-use of search and examination results
according to the SHARE concept.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to initiate the first steps towards a future
automation of the supply of information necessary to support work sharing
initiatives.
(c) Common Citation Document
The Trilateral Offices authorised public deployment of Version 1 of the Common
Citation Document (CCD) with immediate effect. The USPTO initiated theexchange of citation data from office actions to support the CCD, and the JPO
confirmed the intention to continue such data exchange. The Trilateral Offices
further confirmed their intentions to provide enriched citation data to support theCCD as and when possible.

The Trilateral Offices agreed to promote the extension of the CCD to the IP5Offices.

2. Examiner Exchange (Project WM3)
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement that examiner exchange
programmes are an effective means to build confidence among the Offices.
Accordingly, the Offices remained committed to continuing this work throughIP5 cooperation to advance this objective and to make more efficient use ofresources.
3. Using the PCTThe Trilateral Offices continued to recognise the importance of maintaining
efforts on using the PCT system to its full potential and agreed to continue toexplore and implement, where feasible, various proposals to advance the PCT
Roadmap.
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to strive towards improving thePCT process in order to optimise reuse of PCT work within the national stage in
the Trilateral Offices, including ensuring that the quality of PCT search andexamination equals that of each Offices' standards for national / regional patentapplications.
The EPO and USPTO have been engaged in a limited PCT collaborativeinternational search and preliminary examination pilot with the KIPO as one
component of the Roadmap. It is hoped to expand this pilot to other IP5 Offices
if appropriate. The EPO implemented a procedure to deliver second written
opinions in PCT Chapter II as a second component of the Roadmap.
4. Examination Practices and Quality Issues (Project LEG)
The Trilateral Offices continued to recognise that the Catalogue of Differing
Examination Practices could be beneficial for examiners utilising the work
results of other Offices, provide a basis for improving quality and serve as avaluable tool for applicants. In this context, an assessment of the Catalogue
has been made by experts in the Trilateral Offices and among Trilateral User
representatives. The results will be used to improve the usefulness of theCatalogue in work sharing activities by examiners and as a reference for users,
as well as a basis for harmonisation and operational practice convergenceamong the Offices. The Catalogue, which has been enriched with KIPO andSIPO contributions, will be published on the Trilateral website.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to continue to complete the collaborative study on
quality metrics. This study aims at assessing the quality of the International
Search Reports with the objective to improve their suitability for use in thenational phase.

5. Enhancement of IT Collaboration
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to continue developing andsupporting the IP5 Foundation Projects to support work sharing.
(a) Priority Document Exchange (Project DTR3)
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to continue working with WIPO toimprove the usability and security of the WIPO Digital Access Service (DAS)
and to continue implementing security measures to improve current PDXexchanges.
(b) Electronic Filing, Data Standards (Project EB1, STD1)Moving toward the realization of the use of an XML standard in the three Offices,
the Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to continuously exchange
information on enhancing XML based e-filing and processing in each of theOffices.
The Trilateral Offices will continue to promote the use of the Common
Application Format with its users.
Recognising the efficiencies that may be gained from developing common
standards, the Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to work towards
standardising XML format for PCT forms and to fulfilling the business
requirements for data exchange standards.
The Trilateral Offices presented their respective position on XML
standardisation on which the XML roadmap will be based. This includes
supporting the work of relevant WIPO working groups for the further
enhancement of existing standards, and development of new standards for dataexchange to support the business requirements of the Trilateral Offices.
The Offices agreed to support the efforts to enhance existing formats for theexchange of data for written opinions, and for legal status of patent applications
while considering new standards and ensuring interoperability between them.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to continue working on a revised standard for thepresentation of sequence listings in XML and work towards an agreed position
towards an adoption process at WIPO in the course of 2012.
(c) Zero Paper Emission
The Trilateral Offices will continue to consider legal and technical issues topositively support the WIPO IB’s goals of digitisation. The Trilateral Offices willcontinue to support the “ePCT” project which handles PCT documents inelectronic form.

(d) TRINet (Project IT3)
The Trilateral Offices reaffirmed their commitment to determining the preferred
method of exchanging information via networks depending on application typeso as to enable secure exchange open to many IPOs in the future.
The Offices agreed on a plan to implement the Trinet Security Policy, including
agreeing on an initial set of ISO 27002 Common Controls for Trinet and to begin
planning for their implementation.
It was also agreed to further investigate the alternatives for future secure dataexchange amongst the Trilateral Offices.
(e) DTDs for PCT forms
The Trilateral Offices, in conjunction with WIPO, agreed on a Proposal for
Change (PFC) for Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for the PCT forms under
Annex F.
7. Classification (Project WT2)The Trilateral Offices completed all outstanding Classification Harmony Projects,
thus paving the way for a smooth transition into the IP5 cooperation framework.
These projects have been forwarded to the IPC community for their integrationin the IPC.
The Trilateral Working Group on Classification held its last session on 14October 2011 at the EPO in The Hague. Further classification cooperation work
is now undertaken by the IP5 WG1 - Working Group on Classification.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to establish a Working Group to study (beginningin 2012) how to accelerate the program of the CHC, which should merge CPCand FI. Trilateral Offices will dedicate necessary resources to the CHC project
for this purpose as from 2013, or earlier if possible.
8. Information Dissemination/Public Awareness (Project PI)
The Trilateral Offices reaffirmed the strategic importance of the revised
Trilateral information dissemination policy of free flow of information of data.
Recognising the importance to minimise any overlap of activity, the Trilateral
Offices agreed to the transition of certain patent information activities to the IP5
cooperation framework, in particular promoting the expansion of said Trilateral
information dissemination policy to the IP5 Offices.
The Trilateral Offices remained committed to reviewing dissemination policies
and practices in order to enhance and expand access to a broader usercommunity.

9. Statistics (Project MAN)The Trilateral Offices and the KIPO released Four Office Statistics Report inNovember 2011, and expect to be able to release a Five Office Statistics Reportin 2012 with the support of the SIPO.
The Trilateral Offices continue with their resolve that the SIPO should become afull member of a newly formed "Five Office Statistics Working Group". Taking
account of progress that is expected on this issue, the Trilateral Offices areprepared to dissolve the Four Office Statistics Working Group once theiractivities have been moved to the IP5 cooperation framework. Once thecriteria are met, the Four Offices Statistics Working Group will dissolve with theassumption that the work will be carried out under IP5.