Intellectual property is imagination made real --
An asset that awards human ingenuity and drives technology.
Protection of intellectual property is a crucial enterprise, and the international system has
so far done well in seeing to that.
However today, the processes for obtaining international patent protection are complex and costly, involving duplication and redundancy
with the movement of millions of documents, many of which are identical, around the world.
While many offices have electronic filing and other tools available to assist users and the public,
they embody to a great extent the automation of obsolete work flows,
many dating from the 19th century.
Why are we asking users to refile the same priority documents all over the globe when they're available electronically for all to see?
This simply makes no sense in the modern world.
The current system beckons for leadership of thought and ingenuity, to advance global
patent protection in the 21st century. Sorely needed are solutions for the movement
and duplication of documents is minimized, or even eliminated.
A visionary concept, the global dossier will
provide those solutions by the creation of a single portal for all stakeholders in an
inventive activity. The vision is one of complete stakeholder inclusiveness in a virtual environment,
and one that will save countless resources worldwide for all of those stakeholders.
As the level of international patent filings increases year over year, solutions to simplify
the process are needed. With global dossier, applicants will be able to select cross filing routes,
offices, and timing when filing the initial application, enabling planned global
patent strategies for an invention from the start.
The timing of workflows among offices will be available in real time, and strategic activities,
such as use of the patent prosecution highway, can be mapped out in advance.
In this way, the global dossier system will facilitate both the creation and execution
of a preplanned strategy.
Of course this system will allow the users
to make changes to the strategy as developments unfold during global prosecution, giving applicants
flexibility to actively manage their international patent application portfolios.
The ability to opt for cross-filing in advance, or to have affirmative reminders of due dates,
will eliminate the inadvertent loss of rights.
Also, workflows for the cross-filing requirements
of other offices can be tailored into it, creating further efficiency, by ensuring that
completeness is obtained, eliminating all causes of delay.
Once a global dossier is created in this fashion, applicants will have a one -stop portal for
managing an entire global family of applications,
in turn reducing the need to repeatedly file the same documents in multiple offices,
as all of the information is in one place.
Advanced machine translation will be a key feature in this environment.
IP offices will benefit from new efficiencies created in this environment, since it will
be the ultimate work sharing vehicle. In addition, it forms a unifying umbrella
over many IT initiatives currently under consideration among offices.
Search and examination results, along with clear indications of when they are available,
will enable examiners to optimally benefit from their mutual efforts.
These results will be seen with a mere click to the common citation area of the dossier.
Modern collaboration tools will enhance examiners' ability to communication, which will work
to increase confidence among them.
The various offices will grant patent rights
to the applicant from their activity workflows in the global dossier.
The owners of the portfolio created in the global dossier environment will enjoy an unprecedented level of certainty.
The quality and defensibility of patent rights
will be enhanced by the high level of work sharing provided for.
As all of the information related to a family of applications will be available in one portal,
the time and cost associated with discovery, for example, will be significantly reduced.
Likewise, capital interests conducting due diligence for investment purposes, will need
only to visit this single portal to view all of the patent activity worldwide, which will
speed up the process and lower the cost.
All stakeholders will benefit from the global dossier.
The burdens on applicants, offices, and numerous
interested third parties, will be dramatically reduced, and in many cases, eliminated.
Incredible efficiencies will be delivered to applicants by providing a user-friendly
means to cross-file and plan and execute their global patent strategy, and save costs.
To offices, through consolidation of search and examination results on related applications
and delivering an effective work sharing mechanism.
And to interest third parties, by providing
one portal to all patent activity.
As you can see, the concept of a global dossier
will establish a new paradigm, which enhances the worldwide intellectual property system.