Patents Backlogs and Mutual Recognition

Economic study launch event

On Wednesday 10 March 2010, The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) hosted a 1 day conference on the economic cost of patent backlogs at the Central Hall Westminster, London. The conference was held to publicise the launch of a major new piece of research (1.37Mb) commissioned by the IPO which looks at the economic impact of the global backlog in patent applications. This research, conducted by London Economics, is the first of its kind to look at the issue of patent backlogs and it has generated a great deal of interest amongst IP offices, IP professionals and business. Backlogs are a real problem with patent offices struggling to cope with global demand that has doubled in the last fifteen years.

Key findings

• Each year of delay costs around £7.6bn in lost economicactivity in Europe, US & Japan alone.
• Over a four-year period, 1 million patents were processed by two or more offices.
• Applicants seek protection in multiple jurisdictions resulting in duplicate applications. In the offices studied one in three applications is a duplicate.
• Worldwide there is a backlog of over 4 million unprocessed patent applications.
• Delays are growing quickly - an additional year of pendency is predicted by 2015 at current rates of growth
• If the time spent on examining duplicate applications could be reduced by 25%, the predicted growth in backlogs could be avoided.

The conference was a huge success and attracted high level participation from the IP community and business at large. The headline speakers included the UK Minister for Intellectual Property, USPTO Director David Kappos, EPO President Alison Brimelow and Deputy Commissioner Koichi Minami of the JPO, and CBI Deputy Director General John Cridland. Later in the day, there were three very fruitful discussions on the economic implications of backlogs, the impact on business and what IP offices are doing to tackle backlogs.

• Videos from the event

The presentations given by some speakers are available:

• Koichi Minami (JPO) - The backlog issue and the JPO’s effort (372Kb)
• James Pooley (WIPO) - A patent parable (20Kb)
• Paula Ramada (London Economics) - Economic implications of global patent backlogs (254Kb)
• Andy Bartlett (UK IPO) - The cost of backlogs: Beyond the executive summary (306Kb)
• Tim Frain (Nokia) - Impact on business: An ICT perspective (281Kb)
• Fatima Beatie (IP Australia) - Vancouver Group Mutual Exploitation (517Kb)
• JinGyun Shin (KIPO) - Tackling the backlog (1.11Mb)
• Satoshi Moriyasu (JPO) - Tackling the backlog: Measures to be considered (1.02Mb)

Notes to editors

• The Intellectual Property Office is within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and is responsible for the national framework of Intellectual Property rights, comprising patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.
• For further information please contact Laura Starrs +44 (0)1633 814806