Global Dossier is a set of business services aimed at modernizing the global patent system and delivering benefits to all stakeholders through a single portal/user interface. These business services of Global Dossier are being delivered incrementally.
In Spring 2015, the USPTO examiners were given access to the dossier information of the related IP5 applications. In June 2015, the USPTO became a providing Office, allowing access to US dossiers through IP5 Global Dossier User Interfaces. On November 20, 2015, the USPTO-hosted User Interface for Global Dossier was released, giving public stakeholders Dossier Access, which will make it easier for patent applicants to quickly and easily view, monitor, and manage intellectual property (IP) protection around the world by providing access to the dossiers of related applications filed at participating offices.
Global Dossier is a project being delivered by the IP5 Offices. The IP5 is made up of: The European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), and the USPTO.
A Global Dossier Task Force was created to ensure that the services developed align with the needs of all stakeholders. It is made up of the IP5 Offices, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and IP5 Industry Groups: American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), Business Europe (BE), Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), Korea Intellectual Property Association (KINPA), and Patent Protection Association of China (PPAC).
In January 2015, the Global Dossier Task Forcemeeting took place in Suzhou, China, where IP5 Industry identified five short-term goals for the Offices to explore. There was an agreement among the IP5 that each Office would define the scope of a particular topic identified by Industry Groups as short-term goals:
- Proof-of-Concept for Inter-Office Exchange – sharing documents between offices, e.g. prior art exchanges, supporting documents, bibliographic data updates, etc.
- Alerting Functionality – an automated mechanism that alerts other offices, applicants, and/or representatives when there is a change in the status of an application
- XML Document Provision – enabling the ability to download application content in XML format
- Applicant Name Standardization – an automated mechanism that will assign a single, unique name to entities with applications pending in multiple offices
- Legal Status – a mechanism to allow users to view the legal status of an application in another Office
The IP5 Offices are continuing to evaluate these short-term goals to determine which of these will be the next service to deliver.
Global Dossier will provide benefits to all stakeholders around the world.
KEY ADVANTAGES:
- Provides a single, secure point of access for the management of dossier and examination information
- Increases efficiency and predictability of global patent family prosecution
- Time and cost savings for patent applicants by reducing applicant burden
- Enables and encourages streamlining of Office procedures among different IP Offices
- Improves worldwide patent quality, resulting in higher value patents
The business services of Global Dossier are being designed with stakeholders in mind. Therefore, we are looking for stakeholder input, feedback, and suggestions and will be hosting focus session and information sessions throughout the entire development process. Stakeholders can also provide input, feedback, and suggestions on these five short-term goals through our Global Dossier Ideascale.
If you would like more information about Global Dossier or on how you can become involved with Global Dossier, please email GlobalDossier@USPTO.gov.
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