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) |
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KIPO MOIP (South Korea) |
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CNIPA (China) |
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USPTO (USA) |
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ILPO (Israel) |
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CIPO (Canada) |
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IMPI (Mexico) |
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IPOS (Singapore) |
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IPA (Australia) |
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SIC (Colombia) |
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MyIPO (Malaysia) |
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IPOPHL (Philippines) |
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INPI (Brazil) |
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INDECOPI (Peru) |
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SAIP (Saudi Arabia) |
OJ EPO 2022, A59OJ EPO 2025, A39 |
INAPI (Chile) |
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IPONZ (New Zealand) |
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MOIC (Bahrain) |
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).