1. On 1 July 2018, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the National Intellectual Property Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNIPA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – referred to jointly as the IP5 offices – launched the operational phase of the third pilot project on PCT collaborative search and examination (CS&E) (hereinafter "the pilot").