Three new developments illustrate the global nature of patent protection and research

CPA Global reported China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) will use the same patent classification system as the European Patent Office (EPO), beginning January 2014.

The USPTO announced the launch of the Global Patent Search Network, a database that will allow users to search non-U.S. patents in both English and the patent’s native language.  Today searchable is a database of Chinese patents, with machine translations provided by the State Intellectual Property Office of China, limited to Chinese patents granted between 2008 and 2011. It’s a start.

Intellectual Property Watch reported Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski has asked the country’s Ministry of Justice to create new  intellectual property courts. The new entities would become departments of regular courts, uniquely responsible for handling IP disputes.