PPH: Global Pilot Programme and recent agreements

Thirteen Industrial Property Offices plan to participate in the  Global Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme as from January 2014. They are the following:

• Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia)
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
• Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO)
• Finnish National Council for Patents and Registers (NBPR)
• Japanese Patents Office (JPO)
• Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)
• Nordic Patents Institute (NPI)
• Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO)
• Portuguese Industrial Property Institute (INPI)
• Russian Federal Intellectual Property Service (ROSPATENT)
• Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (IPO)
• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
• Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO)

Improving the PPH network
The GPPH pilot programme will make it possible to file for fast-track patent examination in any of the offices participating in the project, providing that the application contains claims that have been considered patentable by any of the other offices participating in the pilot project.

The purpose of this programme is to simplify and improve the existing PPH network to make it more accessible to users, based on a unique set of principles and requirements.

Today the SPTO has signed eleven PPH agreements with National Industrial Property Offices, of which the most recent was with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) on 21 October 2013.

For further information, click here.