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Canada US Patent Prosecution Highway Now Open
On January 28, 2008, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) commenced a one-year pilot project with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to employ the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), a cooperative measure intended to allow fast-tracking of patent applications made in more than one country and reduce the workload on patent examiners.
Under the PPH, if a patent application has already been examined and allowed in a first country where it was first filed, an accelerated examination can be requested in the second country for a patent application claiming priority to the first filed application. The second country will pull the application out of line and deal with it more expeditiously, and in doing so will be entitled to make use of the search and examination results from the first country. Each country will still use its own rules and practices in determining whether to grant the patent; however, it is expected that the applications under the PPH will proceed directly to allowance.
The PPH can also be used with divisional, continuation and PCT National Entry applications that meet the necessary application eligibility requirements. Currently, the primary requirement is that the first filed application must be made in Canada, in the US or as an originating PCT application.
A similar pilot project was conducted between the USPTO and the Japan Patent Office, which resulted in a full-time program being implemented, and there are additional ongoing pilot projects between the United States and the United Kingdom, the US and South Korea, Japan and South Korea, and the UK and Japan.
For additional information, visit:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/patents/PPH_Notice-e.pdf