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Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

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Purpose and Outline of the PPH

The PPH enables an application whose claims have been determined to be patentable in the Office of First Filing (OFF) to undergo an accelerated examination in the Office of Second Filing (OSF) with a simple procedure upon a request from an applicant on the basis of bilateral office agreements.

Purpose and Outline of the Patent Prosecution Highway

The purpose of the PPH is to facilitate an applicant's acquisition of a patent at an early stage worldwide and to enhance the utilization of search and examination results between the IP Offices so as to reduce the burden of examination and to enhance the quality of examination worldwide.

  • PPH Portal (Statistics and information on PPH implementation are available here)
  • Guidelines (Requirements and procedures in detail) and Request form for PPH
  • FAQ
Requirements and procedures of PPH (Typical example)

Required Documents
  1. A copy of all claims and its translations
  2. A copy of the OFF office actions and its translation
  3. Copies of all cited documents
  4. Claims Correspondence Table

*In many cases, it is suffice to fill out necessary information in the request form. Actual submittal of documents is not required.

(Please check guidelines of each office’s PPH program)

(Fig.) Required Documents

Fundamental Requirements
  1. The OSF application is in particular relationship with the OFF application. (e.g. The OSF application is an application which validly claims priority under Paris Convention to the OFF application.)
  2. OFF application has at least one claim that was determined by the OFF to be allowable.
  3. All the claims in OSF application sufficiently correspond to the allowable/patentable claims in OFF applications.
  4. The examination has not begun in the OSF. (This requirement doesn’t exist in some offices.)

PPH petition fee

Free in most offices.

If the PPH adopts the PPH MOTTAINAI, PPH request is eligible, whether or not the office which provides the examination results is the Office of First Filing (OFF). (Details of the PPH MOTTAINAI)

The JPO has commenced the PPH programs using the PCT international work products (PCT-PPH) on pilot basis. Under these programs, an accelerated examination can be requested using a written opinion established by certain International Searching Authorities (WO/ISA), a written opinion established by certain International Preliminary Examining Authorities (WO/IPEA) or an international preliminary examination report (IPER) established by certain International Preliminary Examining Authorities. (Details of PCT-PPH)

Information on each PPH agreement

Symbols under country/region names show available PPH schemes.

NORMAL PPH：NORMAL PPH  PPH MOTTAINAI：PPH MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH：PCT-PPH

PPH with the office of an asterisk (*) mark is applicable only when the earliest patent application or the PCT application is filed to the JPO or the office of the asterisk (*) mark.

The Five IP Offices (except the JPO)

United States of America  United States of America NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Europe  Europe NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
China  China NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Republic of Korea  Republic of Korea NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH

Asia

Singapore  Singapore NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Philippines  Philippines NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Taiwan  Taiwan NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI Indonesia  Indonesia(*) NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Thailand  Thailand NORMAL PPH Malaysia  Malaysia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Viet Nam  Viet Nam NORMAL PPH India India(*) NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI

Africa

Egypt  Egypt NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH morocco  Morocco NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI

Europe/Middle East

United Kingdom  United Kingdom NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Germany  Germany NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Denmark  Denmark NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Finland  Finland NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Russia  Russia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Austria  Austria NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Hungary  Hungary NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Spain  Spain NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Sweden  Sweden NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Nordic  Nordic PCT-PPH
Norway  Norway NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Iceland  Iceland NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Israel  Israel NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Portugal  Portugal NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Poland  Poland NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Eurasia  Eurasia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
czech  czech NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Romania  Romania NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Esthonia  Esthonia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Visegrad  Visegrad PCT-PPH
Turkey  Turkey NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Saudi Arabia  Saudi Arabia(*) NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Saudi Arabia  France NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH  

North America, Central America, South America

Canada  Canada NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Mexico  Mexico NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Colombia  Colombia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH Brazil  Brazil(*) NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Argentina  Argentina Chile  Chile NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH
Peru  Peru NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH  

Oceania

Australia  Australia NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH New Zealand  New Zealand NORMAL PPH  PPH　MOTTAINAI  PCT-PPH

Plurilateral PPH Meeting (Press Releases)

IP5 PPH Initiative

IP5 Offices agree on joint PPH pilot program

 
→ Japanese page

[Last updated 3 July 2023]

Contact

Examination Policy Planning Office

Administrative Affairs Division

Patent and Design Examination Department

Japan Patent Office

Tel: +81-3-3581-1101 (ex. 3103)

E-mail: PA2260@jpo.go.jp

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