EPO and IP Australia make their PPH fast-track programme permanent
1 July 2022
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme between the EPO and IP Australia (IPA) becomes permanent on 1 July 2022. The current conditions and requirements for participation will continue to apply.
The offices have agreed to permanently extend the agreement, following the successful completion of a pilot programme, which was initially launched in July 2016 and extended in July 2019.
The EPO's PPH portfolio
In addition to this PPH programme, the EPO has operational PPH pilot programmes with the IP5 offices (the grouping of the world's five largest IP offices, made up of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the National Intellectual Property Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNIPA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)), as well as with the national patent offices of Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.