UK Welcomes IP Cooperation With Japan, US

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

09 August 2011

A new pilot scheme, aimed at increasing the flexibility of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), will benefit UK businesses operating in the United States and Japan, the UK's Minister for Intellectual Property, Judith Wilcox has said.

The PPH is an existing scheme that can speed up the receipt of patents granted in participating countries. It gives applicants who have received a favourable decision by a first examining office the opportunity to request an accelerated examination at another office.

The new ‘Mottainai’ pilot will help ease the process by relaxing requirements around priority and timing of application. Previously, patent applications have only been eligible for the PPH if they met strict requirements relating to the order in which they were filed and the priority which they claimed. Offices participating in the pilot programme will relax these requirements so that applicants may benefit from the PPH regardless of the order in which their applications were filed or the priority claimed.

Welcoming the pilot, Wilcox said:

“The Patent Prosecution Highway can significantly speed up the often lengthy process of gaining a patent and help minimize the associated costs to the applicant. It also helps to reduce patent backlogs by minimizing the duplication of work carried out by offices.”

“Relaxing the priority requirements will provide greater opportunity and flexibility for businesses to take advantage of quicker and cheaper international patent protection. A greater use of the PPH will also improve the efficiency of participating offices and help contribute to granting high quality patents.”

The ‘Mottainai’ pilot programme will involve the Intellectual Property Office’s PPH agreements with the Japanese Patent Office and the US Patents and Trade Marks Office. The pilot will run for an initial one year period until July 14, 2012.

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