Chapter III – Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
1. General
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) enables an applicant whose claims have been determined to be patentable/allowable to have a corresponding application which has been filed with a PPH partner office processed in an accelerated manner while at the same time allowing the offices involved to exploit available work results.
Currently, the EPO's PPH partner offices are: JPO (Japan), KIPO (South Korea), CNIPA (China), USPTO (USA), ILPO (Israel), CIPO (Canada), IMPI (Mexico), IPOS (Singapore), IPA (Australia), SIC (Colombia), MyIPO (Malaysia), IPOPHL (Philippines), INPI (Brazil), INDECOPI (Peru) and (SAIP) Saudi Arabia.
The PPH programmes with Rospatent (Russian Federation) and EAPO (Eurasia) have been suspended.
Under the PPH (pilot) programme a PPH request can be based on:
(i)the latest PCT work product (WO‑ISA or IPRP/IPER) established by one of the PPH partner offices as ISA or IPEA (PPH based on PCT work products) (except under the PPH (pilot) programme with INPI (Brazil)); or
(ii)any national work product (office action indicating patentable/allowable claims) established during the processing of a national application or of a PCT application that has entered the national phase before one of the PPH partner offices (PPH based on national work products).