Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH) Pilot
A new Global Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot (GPPH) will launch on 6 January 2014. This new GPPH pilot arrangement replaces a number of the previous bilateral agreements between various IP offices, and will simplify the previous arrangements for applicants by using a single set of qualifying requirements.
Further to our update of 02 January 2014 it has been announced that the following four intellectual property (IP) offices have now signed up to the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH) Pilot Programme with effect from the original 06 January 2014 commencement date:
- Hungarian Intellectual Property Office;
- Icelandic Patent Office;
- Israel Patent Office;
- Swedish Patent and Registration Office.
These four offices join the following:
- Canadian Intellectual Property Office
- Danish Patent and Trademark Office
- Federal Service for Intellectual Property (ROSPATENT) (Russian Federation)
- Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom) (an operating name of the Patent Office)
- IP Australia
- Japan Patent Office
- Korean Intellectual Property Office
- National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland
- National Institute of Industrial Property (Portugal)
- Nordic Patent Institute
- Norwegian Industrial Property Office
- Spanish Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
This takes the total number of participating offices so far to 17. The European Patent Office and the State Intellectual Property Office of China remain notably absent from the list of participating offices.