Further to the announcement of the starting of the Global PPH (GPPH) pilot on 6 January 2014, the following four Offices have also signed up to the pilot with effect from that date, bringing the number of participating Offices to 17:
– Hungarian Intellectual Property Office
– Icelandic Patent Office
– Israel Patent Office
– Swedish Patent and Registration Office
It is recalled that under the pilot, it is possible for a request for accelerated processing to be made at any participating office based on work products (including, where applicable, a PCT written opinion from either the International Searching Authority or the International Preliminary Examination Authority, or an international preliminary report on patentability (IPRP) (Chapter II)), from any one of the other participating offices, provided that at least one claim has been found to be patentable by the office of earlier examination, and that any other applicable eligibility criteria are met. The pilot uses a single set of qualifying requirements and aims to simplify and improve the existing PPH network to make it more accessible to users.
For further information, including the eligibility requirements for making use of the GPPH pilot, see the Patent Prosecution Highway Portal Site.
Source: WIPO, PCT Newsletter No 1/2014
