The Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) agreed to begin full implementation of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) on January 4, 2008. METI hereby announces the joint document by the JPO and the USPTO.

1. Full Implementation of the Japan-U.S. Patent Prosecution Highway
The PPH aims to accelerate patent prosecution abroad, and reduce burdens on patent examination and improve the quality of patent examination for patent offices in each country. The JPO and the USPTO implemented the pilot program for the Japan-U.S. PPH for a year and a half from July 2006. Based on the results of the pilot program, the JPO and the USPTO agreed to begin full implementation of the Japan-U.S. PPH on January 4, 2008 and issued the attached joint document.

2. Results of pilot program
Under the pilot program, a total of 227 patent applications have been filed from Japan to the United States and a total of 159 patent applications from the United States to Japan from July last year upon the launch of the pilot program to December this year. Major companies that filed patent applications under the pilot program include Canon, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Toshiba, Seiko Epson, Denso, Microsoft, General Electric (GE), GE Medical Systems, ASML Netherlands, and Bose. The average time from the PPH request to the first office action in both offices was two to three months. As a result, for PPH applications, the average first action pendency in Japan was reduced by a year and a half or more (from 26 months to 5 months). In the U.S., the average first action pendency in the area of information processing was reduced by about a year (from 31 months to 18 months).

For reference:
USPTO and JPO to Implement Patent Prosecution Highway Full-Time Basis (PDF:22KB)