In May, Vice-President Dr Maria Skottke-Klein and Vice-President Bernd Maile welcomed Mr Masanori Katsura, Deputy Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office, and his delegation to the DPMA. Representatives of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) also participated in the talks.
The focus of this visit was on the latest IT developments in our office. The representatives of the DPMA explained the project work concerning the development of the electronic file as well as the inhouse search programme DEPATIS and demonstrated it using practical examples.
Another main topic of this meeting was the patent examiner exchange, which was resumed in person in 2024.
The patent examiner exchange programme with the Japanese Patent Office has been in place for more than 20 years. During the pandemic we had to switch to a virtual format, so the examiners were only partly able to get to know each other personally.
In June 2024, we resumed the exchange in person. Two patent examiners of the DPMA visited their colleagues in Tokyo and discussed the examination practice of their offices using selected parallel applications from the fields of civil engineering and medical technology. We are glad that this important and valuable tradition can now be continued to the full extent again.
In October 2024, we were once more able to welcome a delegation of the JIPA to Munich.
The colleagues of the JIPA were given an extensive insight into the working methods, application numbers and latest developments at the DPMA. Moreover, the search and examining methods and the patent examiner training were explained.
A highlight of the year 2024 was the visit of Daren Tang, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), to Munich.
Together with other representatives of the DPMA, WIPO Director General Daren Tang and President Eva Schewior discussed current topics such as digitisation, but also the empowerment of women in IP. WIPO affirmed its intention to promote the cooperation with industrial as well as developing countries. Moreover, the participants talked about details concerning conducting a joint analysis on the utilisation of IP rights by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany.
DPMA delegation in Geneva
Meeting with Mr. Georgaras, Commissioner of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
Meeting with the Director of the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) Mr. Williams
Ms. Schewior also met the Commissioner of the China Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), Dr. Shen, in Geneva
Meeting with the Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Yota Ono
Meeting with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)
Meeting with WIPO Director General Daren Tang
At the beginning of July, the senior management of the DPMA participated in the WIPO Assemblies in Geneva.
On the margins of the Assemblies, DPMA President Eva Schewior and Vice President Dr Maria Skottke-Klein met with the heads of the IP offices of Canada, the Republic of Korea, the UK, China and Japan as well as with WIPO Director General Daren Tang.
On 9 July 2024, President Eva Schewior had a meeting with her Canadian counterpart Konstantinos Georgaras. The discussion was not only about the latest developments in the two offices, but also about how to further intensify the collaboration in terms of IP awareness. Moreover, both sides agreed on an exchange concerning the CIPO’s green patents project that allows for an accelerated examination without additional costs for the applicant.
A meeting between DPMA President Eva Schewior and her British counterpart Adam Williams also covered the latest developments at the two offices. It focussed on the latest progress made in patent and trade mark proceedings and on the role of IP when it comes to fostering innovation. Another topic was the EU Commission’s latest regulation on standard essential patents. The two heads stressed the necessity of a close cooperation in order to strengthen the innovative capacity of the two countries.
In Geneva, President Schewior and her Chinese counterpart Commissioner Dr Shen Changyu discussed the long-standing cooperation between the two offices and the latest developments. The Commissioner provided information about legal amendments concerning IP in China. The two heads also discussed the use of artificial intelligence for IP rights examination while emphasising the importance of IP protection for the global economy.
The Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office, Yota Ono, underlined the significance of a regular exchange between the two offices and acknowledged the meetings regarding IT topics which took place on working level. Moreover, both heads highly valued the patent examiner exchange that contributes essentially to a deeper understanding of the examination practice in the two offices.
The meeting of President Eva Schewior with her Korean counterpart, Commissioner Dr Kim Wan Ki, was characterised by a mutual recognition of the successful cooperation so far.
The central topic was drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is to strengthen the present cooperation structures and establish new ways for joint work, especially in the fields of digital transformation and harmonised patent procedures. This MoU also aims at intensifying the cooperation concerning public relations work for raising IP awareness.
In addition to the discussions with the counterparts of national offices, DPMA President Schewior and Vice-President Dr Skottke-Klein also met WIPO Director General Daren Tang for a bilateral meeting. On this occasion they discussed topics of global relevance, such as the role of patents for the production of vaccines in developing countries and the importance of artificial intelligence in medicine for the aging population worldwide. WIPO suggested, among other topics, a close exchange of both patent offices concerning the digitisation of IP procedures.
In Geneva there was another meeting with EUIPO Executive Director João Negrão and the Presidents of national offices. It focused on current topics of trade mark law and most notably the implementation of the EU’s 14th sanctions package.
DPMA Vice-President Bernd Maile met his US-counterpart Vaishali Udupa in Munich at the end of July 2024.
They discussed the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) and its effects on patent offices. This included the increasing numbers of patent applications in complex fields of technology with a connection to AI.
Information on the recruitment, training and commitment of new patent examiners was of particular interest to the USPTO, as in 2025, about 1,600 new patent examiner jobs are scheduled to be created at the USPTO.
Initiated by the USPTO, the heads of all patent and trade mark offices of the leading industrial nations (G7) and representatives of the European Patent Office (EPO) came together for a virtual meeting on artificial intelligence in September.
The main topics of the meeting were the handling of AI-related inventions, their legal status and current legislation and strategies. The participants held short speeches about the legal conditions and the resulting examination practices.
The rapidly evolving field of AI and the question of how to handle it will continue to be a topic of international discussions in the years to come. All participants emphasised the importance of an intensive exchange for the harmonisation of legal conditions.
The DPMA President welcomed her counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Dr Abdulaziz Muhammad Al-Swailem, to an exchange on relevant IP topics in Munich.
Both heads gave a brief overview of the respective current developments. Dr Al-Swailem talked about the goals of “Vision 2030”, which aims to reduce Saudi Arabia’s high dependency on the oil industry to ensure the long-term diversification of the economy.
A main component of “Vision 2030” is to increase the significance of IP, which led to the foundation of the SAIP more than ten years ago. Since then, the application numbers have considerably increased and are expected to keep growing.
In order to further promote the mutual cooperation, the SAIP has proposed a joint working plan which stipulates a patent examiner exchange in the years to come, among other things.
In October, the CNIPA staff learned about the structure and working processes of the patent examination at the DPMA and gained insights into our office’s patent examination training. A final discussion served to deepen selected topics such as the digitisation of the two offices and the handling of the high application numbers that are continuing to rise globally.
In December, DPMA President Schewior welcomed INTA President Dana Northcott and INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo to a meeting in Munich.
The main subject of discussion was once more the current and future handling of AI-based applications. President Northcott underlined the relevance of trade mark protection in the virtual world and explained the INTA’s initiatives. Other main topics were the fostering of sustainable innovations and the future importance of national IP offices.
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is responsible for the registration and administration of European Union trade marks and registered designs at EU level.
For 30 years, the EUIPO has been cooperating with the national IP offices of the EU Member States to go beyond European law and harmonise the practice of registration procedures for trade marks and designs in Europe.
The DPMA regularly sends experts to working groups on different topics as part of Convergence Projects. Last year, the Convergence Project to develop a joint practice on the similarity of goods and services was completed and its results published as Common Practice at the beginning of 2025. Also in 2025, the DPMA will participate in several working groups on different trade mark issues again.
In addition, DPMA experts are working to evaluate previous Convergence Projects and plan new ones for a convergence analysis.
The DPMA also actively cooperates with the EUIPO on comprehensive classification and search tools, such as a unified classification database for goods and services (eKDB/TMClass) and search tools in the TMView and DesignView register databases.
The DPMA strongly focuses on supporting SMEs regarding the effective utilisation of IP rights and therefore participates in correspondent European projects.
For more information on our international collaborations, please go to our website.