For the first time the Director General of WIPO, Francis Gurry, joined the five partners for part of the first day’s meeting. Three WIPO officials were also in attendance to participate in all sessions which were held on both trade marks and designs. Besides MARQUES, a number of other user associations were invited by the partners (ECTA and EPFIA invited by OHIM, INTA and AIPLA invited by the USPTO, JIPA, JTA and JPAA invited by the JPO, Gene Kim invited by KIPO), as the partners have agreed on the importance of ensuring the maximum consensus and participation from all of the relevant stakeholders.

Two statement documents for trademarks and designs were submitted by MARQUES to the TM5 Partners in support of the initiatives run by the partners within the TM5 Collaboration Projects, as MARQUES strongly believes that these can contribute to the enhancement of the trade mark and designs systems and can foster harmonisation and efficiency of practices and procedures.

The creation of common platforms of databases and e-business tools, the harmonisation and alignment of procedures and the fostering of convergence in practices are seen by MARQUES as three of the fundamentals towards an ideally balanced coexistence and true efficiency of existing national, regional and International trade mark and design systems.

At present the TM5 partners are cooperating on these projects:

1. ID Project – led by the USPTO with the participating offices of JPO, KIPO, OHIM and SAIC.
2. Common Statistical Indicators – led by the OHIM with the participating offices of JPO, KIPO, SAIC and USPTO.
3. Common Status Descriptors – led by the USPTO, with the participating offices of JPO, KIPO, OHIM and SAIC.
4. Continuation/Expansion of Bad Faith Project – led by the JPO with the participating offices of KIPO, OHIM, SAIC and the USPTO.
5. Image Search – led by the JPO with the participating offices of KIPO, OHIIM, SAIC and the USPTO.
6. Taxonomy and Euroclass link – led by OHIM with the participating offices of the JPO, KIPO and the USPTO.
7. User-friendly access to trade mark information – led by OHIM with the participating offices of the JPO, KIPO and the USPTO.
8. Website – led by KIPO with the participating offices of the JPO, KIPO, OHIM, SAIC and the USPTO
9. Session with users – led by the host country with the participating offices of JPO, KIPO, OHIM, SAIC and USPTO

There are no specific projects on designs. JPO, KIPO, OHIM and the USPTO have agreed to collaborate on design matters and therefore will continue exchanging information about their respective procedures and practices, with a view to considering any possible simplification and alignment.

MARQUES supported the promotion of further projects within the TM5 frame, especially on designs, and expects that well-timed and representative user consultation is carried out, to ensure that the focus of any proposed new projects can stay on the users’ needs.

At the end of all sessions on both trade marks and designs OHIM, the USPTO, the JPO, KIPO and SAIC issued a Joint Statement, setting out the agreements reached by the partners in view of the continuation of all existing projects, which include the creation and development of a website aimed at raising the level of communication about the partners’ initiatives among all relevant stakeholders, and the expansion of the partners’ collaboration in the design area.