According to the Joint Statement of the Pilot Program of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between the Patent and Trademark Office of Germany (DPMA) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the P. R. China (SIPO), the PPH pilot program will start on January 23, 2012 and end on January 22, 2014 for a duration of two years.
Under the PPH programs, an accelerated examination can be requested by the applicant where the following circumstances are met: at least one claim is decided to be patentable by office of first filing (hereinafter OFF). The claims in the first filing match those in the second filing, the work result of OFF are available to the office of second filing (OSF). The accelerated examination in the OSF should base on the work results of OFF.
It should be noticed that this PPH pilot program applies only to conventional PPH, not including PCT-PPH.
The operation of the PPH pilot will benefit applicants from both countries in acquiring patents more speedily and help innovative enterprises protect their patent rights overseas more effectively.
Both DPMA and SIPO agreed to start the program. At this stage, any applicant can, according to the relevant requirement, file a request for PPH.
