Patent Prosecution Highway remains open

Following the initial 12 month pilot period, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot agreements between the Intellectual Property Office and the US Patent and Trademark Office and Japanese Patent Office are to be continued. The pilots will remain in operation to allow a larger number of applications to be received before the PPH is assessed in detail.

The PPH allows patent applicants who have received an examination report from one of the participating intellectual property offices to request accelerated examination of a corresponding patent application filed in the other. This allows higher quality, more efficient processing of applications filed in the two offices by giving examiners easier access to the results of earlier examination work carried out on an equivalent application.