Patent Prosecution Highway to Expedite Examination of a Patent Application

The Patent Prosecution Highway, or “PPH,” speeds up the examination process for patent applications filed in participating intellectual property offices around the world. In most countries, patent prosecution can take quite a long time, on the order of 1-3 years or more.  It was started in 2011.

However, under the Patent Prosecution Highway, participating patent offices have agreed that when an applicant receives a final ruling from the patent office of one country, and that office determines that at least one claim is allowed, the applicant may then request fast tracked examination of corresponding claims in a corresponding patent application that is pending in the patent office of another country. For example, if you file a US patent application and a Chinese patent application, and the Chinese patent application receives favorable examination first, indicating that four of the claims are allowed, you can expedite examination of those four claims in the US application.

PPH leverages fast-track examination procedures already in place among participating patent offices to allow applicants to reach final disposition of a patent application more quickly and efficiently than standard examination processing.

There is no fee under the PPH programs, and often, applications advanced under the Patent Prosecution Highway receive favorable examination. This creates considerable cost and time savings in what is otherwise a very expensive multi-national filing.

Many countries or bodies participate in the Patent Prosecution Highway and have reciprocity with the US. Most notably, Australia, the European Patent Office, Canada, China, Japan, Germany, Korea, and the UK all participate. Further, the results of a favorable written opinion or examination of a PCT application can be used as the basis for a PPH request.