The vote was passed by the executive committee of FICPI, the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys, during its meeting in Seville from November 4 to 7.
The committee said that patent offices should “recognize and respect” the broad character of the right to file divisional applications provided by the Paris Convention and “accelerate the examination” of the divisional application.
In the preamble to the resolution, the committee said that divisional applications must be maintained to allow applicants to obtain “appropriate protection” covering all aspects of the innovation in the application, including cases where an examiner refuses further consideration of a patent application.
The vote came less than two weeks after a court in Virginia blocked the USPTO’s attempt to limit the number of continuation applications that patent applications can file in the US.
FICPI’s executive committee also backed two other resolutions during its meeting.
One resolves that measures should be taken to strengthen the patent attorney profession, including providing a legally-protected title for qualified patent attorneys, and the publication of an official register of qualified attorneys.
Danny Huntington, a partner with Bingham McCutchen and president of FICPI, told MIP Week that the issue of professional titles was closely connected to the issue of legal privilege for IP lawyers and attorneys.
“If you are going to grant privilege to someone, then you have to decide who to grant it to,” Huntington said.
He added that the issue of legal privilege for members of the IP profession – and attacks on it – is one of the biggest problems facing FICPI’s members. The Federation plans to meet representatives of WIPO and the AIPPI early next year to discuss ways in which worldwide rules on privilege could be harmonized.
The other resolution passed by the executive committee calls on those patent offices that provide an information service to potential applicants to inform them of “the existence of the IP attorney profession, the importance of obtaining advice from a qualified IP attorney, and how members of that profession may be contacted”.
Huntington said that the resolution could be seen by some people as an attempt to protect the profession.
“I can’t say that that’s not part of it,” he said. “But if you want to have respect for the IP system then you need proper advice. Patent office professionals often don’t have the specialist expertise. National offices are set up to do certain things, and we’re set up to do others.”
