By Christopher P. Singer —

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a press release on September 26, 2008 announcing that it had signed a statement of understanding with the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) which memorializes the existing cooperation between the two Offices and enhances the cooperative efforts on work sharing and international harmonization of patent and trademark matters.  The two Offices have already established cooperative efforts through such programs as the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and Priority Document Exchange which are aimed at harmonizing
patent procedures and to enhance consistency in the quality of patent examination.  This statement, as well as the recently announced memorandum signed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) (see "USPTO and KIPO Sign Memorandum on Cooperative Patent Examination"), arose out of recent talks held in Geneva, Switzerland.