Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

PPH agreements

In July 2007 we started a pilot PPH program with the Japan Patent Office (JPO), which was made a permanent agreement in March 2010.

In September 2007 we started a second pilot PPH program with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which has now been extended indefinitely.

In October 2009 we started a third pilot PPH program with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) which has now been extended indefinitely.

In January 2012 we started a fourth pilot PPH program with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).

Patent Prosecution Highway

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is an initiative which provides you with a means of significantly accelerating examination of your patent application if examination work has already been conducted at another intellectual property office.

Under the PPH agreements, if the claims of your application have been found to be acceptable by a first intellectual property office, you may request accelerated examination of a corresponding application at a second office.

The PPH puts in place a procedure whereby intellectual property offices can make use of relevant work already conducted by another office when conducting the patent examination.

Making use of this work greatly improves our efficiency and can also improve the quality of the patents that we issue. The procedure can provide you with a granted patent for your invention much sooner than would normally be possible.

Background

In the modern global economy many companies and some individual applicants have a growing need to acquire patent protection for the same invention in a variety of different countries. This may require separate patent applications to many different intellectual property offices, each considering the patent application independently of the others.

With this in mind, and following the recommendations of the Gowers Report (professional section), we have been investigating the possibility of international collaboration with other intellectual property offices to enable offices to exploit relevant work already conducted by another office. This has led to PPH agreements with various countries being considered.

Further Information

Further information relating to the Patent Prosecution Highway initiative can be found on the Patent Prosecution Highway Portal Website , hosted by the Japanese Patent Office. The site includes information on the global PPH network and guidelines on making PPH applications between specific Offices. The site also contains the Common Drafting Tool for PPH Request Forms, an on-line aid for completing PPH request forms.

For further information contact Charles Jarman +44 (0)1633 814782 or e-mail PPH@ipo.gov.uk.