The group of IP5 Offices, which is made up of the world’s five largest intellectual property offices – the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – have agreed to launch a comprehensive IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program as from January 2014. The new program will use PCT work products and will enable applicants to accelerate the processing of patent applications. Notably, the Offices concerned will be able to exploit already existing work results wherever practicable. Although there are already several PCT-PPH bilateral pilot programs between those Offices, as well as a trilateral program linking the EPO, the JPO and the USPTO, those PCT-PPH arrangements which are currently operational will be integrated in the new all-inclusive scheme.
Under the new IP5 PCT-PPH pilot program, applicants whose patent claims have been found to be patentable by one of the above-mentioned IP5 Offices, by way of a positive written opinion of either the International Searching Authority (ISA) or the International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), or a positive IPRP (Chapter II), may request, either in the regional phase before the EPO or in the national phase before the JPO, KIPO, SIPO and/or the USPTO, as the case may be, accelerated processing of their corresponding applications pending before the other respective IP5 Offices.
For further information, see the EPO, JPO and SIPO press releases at, respectively:
http://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2013/20130924.html
http://www.jpo.go.jp/torikumi_e/t_torikumi_e/five_pph_torikumi_e.htm
http://www.sipo.gov.cn/yw/2013/201309/t20130925_819901.html
Further details about the conditions that will have to be met in order to make use of this new pilot program, as well as the date on which the program will start, will be announced in the PCT Newsletter once that information has been notified to the International Bureau.
Source: WIPO, PCT Newsletter, October 2013
