|
|
Pilot Patent Program Highway Between US and Japan
IP news letter
(C)2006.5 FURUTANI PATENT OFFICE
2006.5.29
contents
The JPO announced the following on May 24, 2006:
The JPO and the USPTO are going to start accepting the requests for pilot program on Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) from applicants from July 3, 2006. Applicants can file a request for participation in the PPH pilot program following the procedures below.
1. Purpose and Outline of the Patent Prosecution Highway
The Patent Prosecution Highway enables an application to be patented
at early stage relatively easily and aims to enhance the utilization of
search and examination results of the Office of First Filing (OFF) for
each Office, reduce the burden of examination and enhance the quality of
examination.
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) enables an application whose claims
are determined to be allowable/patentable in the Office of First Filing
(OFF) to undergo an accelerated examination in the Office of Second
Filing (OSF) with a simple procedure according to a request from an
applicant.
Current accelerated examination systems of the JPO and the USPTO require
an applicant to conduct a pre-examination search and to submit the
search results (references), an explanation of comparison between the
claimed invention and prior arts and an explanation of patentability of
the claims. However, under the Patent Prosecution Highway scheme, each
Office permits an applicant to submit to the OSF office actions of the
OFF together with patentable claims of the OFF and references cited by
an examiner of the OFF, as an alternative to those documents required in
the current accelerated examination system.
2. PPH Pilot Program between the USPTO and the JPO
The USPTO and the JPO agreed that they should set up a trial period in
advance of the full implementation, and they will start accepting
requests to participate in the PPH pilot program from July 3, 2006.
The purpose of the pilot program is to examine the requirements of the
PPH and the operating procedures. It is also preferable to have a trial
period to familiarize applicants and examiners with the PPH scheme and
the procedures.
The term of the pilot program is one year from July 2006. The Offices
will conduct an evaluation of the results of the pilot program. The
Offices aim to commence full implementation after the evaluation of the
pilot program.
It is possible to consider extending the trial period for up to one year
if the Offices agree that such a change is necessary to adequately
assess the feasibility of the PPH. Either office can propose to
terminate the trial if the volume of participation exceeds manageable
levels. The Offices shall provide adequate notice to the appropriate
parties of the intention to terminate the trial.
The requirements to participate in the PPH pilot program and the
procedures to request to each of the JPO are described in the attached document.
To the Top Page
|
