On May 27, 2024, we, the leaders of the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, held the Ninth Trilateral Summit Meeting among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea in Seoul, the Republic of Korea.

Recalling that on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the trilateral intellectual property cooperation among the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the Japan Patent Office and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter referred to as the "three IP offices"), the heads of the three IP offices held the Trilateral Heads of Office Meeting in Busan on November 30, 2023, reviewed the history of trilateral cooperation and charted a new direction to meet the needs of the new era;

Recalling that the three IP offices launched intellectual property cooperation in 2001 with the aim of promoting the exchange and use of patent examination information, harmonizing patent examination practices and establishing international norms;

Believing that over the past 23 years, based on geographical proximity and cultural similarity, the three IP offices have continuously strengthened mutual trust, deepened cooperation in six areas, namely IP automation, patents, designs, human resource development, reexamination and trademarks, and enhanced patent protection to ensure that patent holders fully enjoy exclusive rights based on their inventions and disclosures;

Recognizing that over the past 20 years, the proportion of patent applications received by the three IP offices in the global total has grown from 40% to more than 60%, and the proportion of trademark filing activity in the global total has grown from 20% to more than 50%. This shows that the three IP offices play an important role in promoting technological progress and economic growth not only in Northeast Asia but also globally;

Agreeing that the next decade will witness deeper integration across different industries and technologies as well as rapid advances in science and technology;

Recognizing that technological progress and innovation are the key to addressing global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that intellectual property is the catalyst for achieving technological progress and innovation, and that the three countries should continue to promote, through cooperation, innovators' creation and use of intellectual property and actively protect intellectual property;

Reaffirming that the three IP offices should work together to share the intellectual property experience accumulated by the three offices with more countries and narrow the global intellectual property gap;

　　We instruct that, in the next decade:

1. The three IP offices will establish an intellectual property system that can accommodate and embrace rapid technological change. We expect that universities, enterprises and research institutions in China, Japan and the Republic of Korea will develop and release innovative products, services and solutions in the fields of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, and the three IP offices will work together to improve relevant rules, examination practices and systems to ensure that such creations are promptly granted appropriate types of intellectual property rights and are properly protected by law.

2. The three IP offices will work together to make patent information more accessible to the public and encourage the private sector to use patent information. The three IP offices recognize that patent information analysis can provide useful guidance for academia, research communities and industry in setting the direction of R&D and investment activities and developing market access strategies. In this spirit, the three IP offices are committed to exchanging each other's patent information, disclosing shared information to the public free of charge, and supporting the private sector in making full use of publicly available patent information, thereby supporting other countries in achieving technological development and innovation-driven growth.

3. In order to share the valuable results jointly achieved by the three IP offices, the three IP offices will strive to expand trilateral intellectual property cooperation to other countries and regions and promote "China-Japan-ROK + X" intellectual property cooperation. In seeking intellectual property partners, the three IP offices will give priority to countries and regional organizations with cooperation needs or synergies (such as ASEAN). The three IP offices believe that this is a step toward balanced global growth by narrowing the global intellectual property gap.