UK-IPO Announces Extension Of Patent Prosecution Highway Initiative

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

12 March 2008

It was announced on Monday that following a successful initial launch period, the scope of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot agreements between the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO), the US Patent and Trade Mark Office (USPTO) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) are to be extended.

The extended procedure is now in force for the PPH between the US and UK Offices, whilst the extended procedure relating to the PPH with the JPO will come in to force on March 25th 2008.

The Patent Prosecution Highway allows patent applicants who have received an examination report from one of the relevant national intellectual property offices to request accelerated examination of a corresponding patent application filed in another relevant country.

To date, the PPH pilot at the UK-IPO has only considered requests for accelerated examination relating to applications that were initially filed and examined at either the JPO or the USPTO. However, the pilot scheme is now being extended to cover examination reports issued by the JPO and USPTO which arise from international applications.

Under the new procedure, once the international application has been examined at either the JPO or the USPTO, the applicant will be able to request accelerated examination at the UK-IPO. The agreement also allows accelerated examination at the JPO and the USPTO when the UK-IPO conducts an examination of an international application before it is examined at the JPO or USPTO.

The UK Intellectual Property Office observed this week that:

"This will greatly enhance the availability of the PPH and will help to further raise the efficiency and quality of patent examination work conducted at the UK-IPO, USPTO and JPO."

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