The European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) met at the 30th Trilateral
Conference in Kyoto, Japan, on 16 November 2012, and commemorated the30th Anniversary of the Trilateral Cooperation:
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 the three
Offices this year:
Adopted a Declaration on the 30th Anniversary of TrilateralCooperation reflecting the long history of cooperation

Published a 30th Anniversary Pamphlet



Revitalized the discussion on PCT improvement with concrete
proposals and agreed to continue to elaborate them

Evaluated the results of the FLASH and JP-FIRST work-sharing
initiatives and agreed on next steps for FLASH.

 Completed Phase 2 follow up of the collaborative study on metrics of thequality of International Search Reports
 Improved the Common Citation Document (CCD) application reflecting
feed-back from the Trilateral industry
 Agreed to invite SIPO as one of the TRINet members
 Agreed to promote the Global Dossier Initiative Agreed to make further contributions for international discussions
towards Harmonisation of patent laws and practices.

Furthermore, understand as follows:
1. Trilateral Cooperation 30th Anniversary
The Trilateral Office produced the 30th Anniversary Pamphlet, which explainsadvancements and achievements which had been made under the Trilateral
Cooperation since its start, and distributed it widely to have the publicacknowledge the Trilateral Cooperation and the role that the Trilateral
Cooperation played in the development of patent systems in the world.
The Trilateral Offices reflected on the Trilateral Cooperation’s long history
started in 1983 and adopted the Declaration on the 30th Anniversary of Trilateral
Cooperation, as attached to this MOU.
2. Work-sharing (Project WM1)
The Trilateral Offices reaffirmed their commitment to further develop the various
work-sharing initiatives in order to maximise reusing each office's work output toincrease the efficiency and effectiveness of their own search and examination
processes. The Trilateral Offices will continue to explore possible methodology
thereof.
(a) Patent Prosecution Highway
The Trilateral Offices reconfirmed the Patent Prosecution Highway as animportant element of Trilateral work-sharing activities and agreed to further
discuss means for enhancing its efficiency and effectiveness. Above all, theTrilateral Offices affirmed their commitment to PPH2.0 and PPH-MOTTAINAI for
a comprehensive PLPPH framework.
Recognizing the importance of streamlining PPH procedures, Trilateral Offices
also confirmed the development of a common guideline would be a pragmatic
approach offices should take in the medium term.
(b) Timeliness
The JPO had realized the concept of a timeliness solution in the JP-FIRST
initiative. The USPTO had undertaken a pilot project known as FLASH to test
the feasibility of balancing and prioritizing workloads to maximize re-use ofsearch and examination results. The Trilateral Offices agreed to discuss next
steps for the Flash 2.0 scheme. The EPO and USPTO will implement the Flash
2.0 as soon as possible.
The Trilateral Offices recognized that maximising accessibility of search andexamination results between the Trilateral Offices via OPD and other means is
an important factor in promoting work-sharing in order to make the most of otheroffices' work output.

3. Examiner Exchange (Project WM3)
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement that examiner exchange
programmes are an effective means to build confidence and to promote mutual
understanding among the Offices.
Accordingly, the Offices remainedcommitted to continuing this work through IP5 cooperation to advance thisobjective and to make more efficient use of resources.

4. PCT
The Trilateral Offices continue to recognise the importance of enhancing efforts
towards 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 made respective proposals to improve the PCT and agreed
to further elaborate and, where feasible, implement these proposals.
The Trilateral Offices maintained agreement to work on improving the PCT
process in order to optimise reusing PCT work within the national stage in theTrilateral Offices. This includes ensuring that the quality of PCT search andexamination equals that of each Offices' standards for national/regional patentapplications.
The EPO and the USPTO have been engaged in a PCT collaborativeinternational search and examination pilot with the KIPO as one component ofthe Roadmap. It is aimed to expand this pilot to other IP5 Offices willing toparticipate in the pilot if appropriate. The JPO would consider a possibility toparticipate in the pilot while consulting with users.

5. Examination Practices and Quality Issues (Project LEG)
The Trilateral Offices reconfirmed the importance of quality metrics for theassessment of the quality of both International Search Reports andnational/regional examination processes with the objective of improving thereusability of International Search Reports in the national phase. The EPO andthe JPO agreed to start Phase 3 of Collaborative Study on Metrics. The EPO
indicated that they proposed to present the PCT Quality Metrics Framework tothe IP5 and further develop quality metrics.

6. 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 implement the improved WIPO
Digital Access Service (DAS 2.0) early and to migrate from the current bi-lateral
PDX exchanges to the DAS when ready.
(b) Electronic Filing, Data Standards (Project EB1, STD1)
The Trilateral Offices confirmed the completion of the Common Application
Format (CAF) project as one of the IP5 Foundation Projects, and agreed tocontinue to promote the use of the CAF with its users even after completion ofthe CAF project.
Moving toward the practical use of an XML standard in the three Offices, theTrilateral Offices maintained agreement to continuously exchange information
on ways to enhance XML based e-filing and processing in each of the Offices.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to continue enhancing existing formats used toexchange data for written opinions, and for legal status of patent applications;while at the same time, considering new standards and ensuring interoperability
between them.
The Trilateral Offices agreed on finalizing the proposal on a revised standard forthe presentation of sequence listings in XML by the deadline for an adoption atthe CWS in 2014, highlighting the importance of continuing discussion on thetransition mechanism from ST.25 to ST.26.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to continue cooperating with the WIPO toward full
adoption of WIPO Standard ST.96, including its Annex, at the 3rd Session ofCWS meeting on the assumption of satisfying the required convertibility and not
replacing ST.36 and other existing standards.
(c) Zero Paper Emission
The Trilateral Offices would continue to consider legal and technical issues toactively 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 Trilateral Offices agreed to add SIPO to Trinet, and expressed theirwelcome for SIPO’s participation.
The Trilateral 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 investigate the alternatives for future secure data exchange
amongst the Trilateral Offices.
(e) Global Dossier Initiative
The Trilateral Offices shared recognition on the importance of the Global Dossier
Initiative as the vision towards enhancing and consolidating the various meansof collaboration between Offices, users and other stakeholders in the patent
process.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to promote the activities of the Global Dossier,including preparation for the 1st Global Dossier Task Force Meeting which will beheld at EPO in 2013.
(f) Common Citation Document
The Trilateral Offices improved the Common Citation Document (CCD)
application reflecting some feed-back from Trilateral industry and released theimproved version of the CCD application in April and the end of 2012.
The Trilateral Offices acknowledged other positive advances related to the CCD.
This includes the start of the USPTO’s timely providing citation data, the JPO’spreparing media-less data exchange, and the IP5 starting initiatives aimed atimproving the CCD. Furthermore, the USPTO will start providing enrichedcitations towards the end of 2013.
The Trilateral Offices agreed to promote the CCD within the IP5 and further
confirmed their intentions to provide enriched citation data to support the CCD
whenever possible.

7. Classification (Project WT2)The Trilateral Offices agreed to further discuss classification to work out theTrilateral Cooperation Long-term Plan on harmonization for classification issue.

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 enhance the transition of certain patent information activities tothe IP5 cooperation framework, in particular encouraging the KIPO and theSIPO to accept the IP5 patent information policy based on said Trilateral
information dissemination policy.
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 plus KIPO(Four Offices) and SIPO worked together so that SIPO
could be included as an official member of the Statistics Working Group for
creating the IP5 Statistics Working Group. The mandate document of the IP5Statistics Working Group has been adopted at the IP5 WG3 held in December
2011, where SIPO was welcomed to the Statistics Working Group. Taking
account of progress that is expected to be achieved on this issue, the Four
Offices Statistics Working Group was dissolved under the assumption that thework will be carried out under IP5.
The IP5 would release the first Five Office Statistics Report in November 2012.