Global and IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Jan 15

Under the GPPH, an applicant having a patent application at a participating office (see below) can request accelerated processing of a co-pending application in another participating office, provided that at least one claim has been found patentable (for example, in a PCT Written Opinion of the International Search Authority or International Preliminary Examination Authority, or a PCT International Preliminary Report on Patentability issued by one of the participating offices) and other applicable eligibility criteria (see link below for specific details) are met. 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.

The GPPH will enable the participating offices to share work products, thus streamlining the patent examination process, and reducing patent backlogs.

The participating IP offices of the GPPH are currently:

• 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

It is noted that the European Patent Office (EPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) are absent from the list of participants. However, the EPO and SIPO will be participating in another Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot arrangement – the IP5 PPH - which also commences on 6 January 2014 (for a trial period of three years ending 5 January 2017), and enables applicants to fast-track their applications in a similar manner to the GPPH. The other intellectual property offices participating in the IP5 PPH are: the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Useful Links

1. Further information, including the eligibility requirements for making use of the GPPH pilot, can be found at the PPH Portal Site.
2. Further information on the IP5 PPH pilot programme can be found here.