The Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (ROSPATENT) jointly stated their intention to commence the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program on May 18, 2009, at the ROSPATENT/JPO Heads Meeting held in Russia on April 21, 2009.

With the conclusion of the PPH with Russia, which is number eight in the world in terms of number of patent applications, the patent offices of 12 main countries/regions, accounting for more than 75% of the total patent applications worldwide, are currently implementing the PPH. This has made it possible to further expand the PPH to enable applicants’ early acquisition of high-quality patents.

Background

With the rapid increase in patent applications worldwide, the need to obtain patents in many countries has been increasing along with the expansion of global activities by companies. Accordingly, the major issue is to reduce the examiners’ duplicate work and workload resulting from duplicate applications among patent offices throughout the world.

PPH

Under these circumstances, the JPO has been promoting with each office the PPH, a framework whereby the office of second filing refers to the examination results of the applications determined to be patentable in the office of the first filing, thus implementing accelerated examination. The PPH is expected to allow applicants to obtain patents faster and more efficiently in foreign countries and to permit each office to utilize the search and examination results of other offices. Thereby, it will reduce the workload of examiners and improve the quality of patents.

Commencement of PPH Pilot Program between the JPO and ROSPATENT

Patent applications from all around the world to Russia, one of the BRICs, have increased along with the country’s rapid economic growth in recent years, with the number of patent applications in Russia in 2007 reaching about 39,000.　Under these circumstances, the JPO and the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (ROSPATENT) jointly stated their intention to commence the PPH Pilot Program on May 18, 2009, at the Heads Meeting between the JPO and ROSPATENT on April 21, 2009.
Starting on the commencement date, applicants can request an accelerated examination under this program.
The details of this program are available at:
http://www.jpo.go.jp/torikumi_e/t_torikumi_e/patent_highway_e.htm

Expansion of the PPH network

The world’s first PPH program was implemented between the JPO and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on a permanent basis in 2006. Since then we have expanded Japan’s partnerships and now there are seven different countries (USA, Korea, the U.K, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Russia) including Russia. With all seven countries and Japan combined, we hold a 64% - the share of the world’s total number of patent applications. By utilizing the PPH pilot program, the burden of patent examiners has been reduced and the quality of patent examination improved, in each office. In the meantime, a growing number of countries are forming similar partnerships. The expansion of the program is reflected by the fact that 12 main countries/regions, which hold a combined 75%-share of worldwide applications, have been utilizing the PPH pilot program. The JPO will continue its efforts to establish PPH programs with the EPO and the Austrian Patent Office, and is currently engaged in PPH-related discussions with each of these offices.

April 21, 2009

• Examination Policy Planning Office, Japan Patent Office
  TEL : +81-3-3580-5898 (direct)
• International Affairs Division, Japan Patent Office
  TEL : +81-3-3581-1898 (direct)