Oficina española de Patentes y Marcas

Since October 2010, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) had launched a series of agreements with Industrial Property offices in other countries.

These agreements, known internationally as Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), allow applicants from the Spanish office to request fast-track processing at another office that participates in the PPH project, provided that the claims of the application have already been considered patentable by the SPTO. This enables information to be exchanged between the different offices, avoids repeated efforts and speeds up granting procedures, ultimately favouring an improved service for patent applicants.

Similarly, an applicant from an Industrial Property Office with which Spain has signed a PPH agreement may request the SPTO to perform a fast-track processing of an application that has obtained a positive patentability report in its office of origin.

No additional fee applies for this service and the applicants themselves must expressly request it.

PCT-PPH

PCT applicants who have designated the SPTO as an international search administration or the administration in charge of the international preliminary examination, and who have obtained positive patentability reports, may also benefit from the fast-track processing of the PPH upon entering the national phase in the offices with which the corresponding agreement has been signed.

The SPTO collaborates in the PPH MOTTAINAI Pilot Program, which gives applicants the option of requesting fast-track examinations in accordance with the PPH program, in situations which until now have not been explicitly dealt with in order to better taking advantage of the PPH program.

Additional information on PPH

The SPTO forms part of the agreement known as PPH Global in which more than 20 offices participate, and has also signed bilateral PPH agreements with national offices.

PPH Global

The PPH Global agreement includes more than 20 offices, including the SPTO, which allows patent applicants to request fast-track examinations at any of the participating offices.

The GPPH program allows patent applicants to request fast-track examination at any of the offices participating in the project if their application contains claims that have been determined patentable/admissible by any of the other offices participating in the pilot project.

The main advantage of GPPH is that it uses a unique set of principles and requirements, and aims to simplify and improve the existing PPH network to make it more accessible to users.

For further information, please visit the PPH Global website

• Guidelines for requesting PPH from the SPTO in accordance with the GPPH program (in English)

• Forms:
• PPH application (Spanish version)
• PPH application (English version)

Bilateral PPH

In addition to the GPPH program, since October 2010, the SPTO has launched a series of agreements with Industrial Property offices in other countries.

If you have any questions or queries feel free to contact the SPTO at: pph@oepm.es