New Ideas for Rapid Examination-Patent Examination Highway (PPH)

According to the SSE China Securities News,State Intellectual Property OfficeAccording to the joint decision of the State Intellectual Property Office of China and the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, the China-Denmark PPH pilot project will be extended for five years from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2028. The requirements and processes for participation in this pilot project continue to follow the Sino-Danish PPH guidelines.

PPH is a fast-track patent examination channel between different countries or regions, speeding up the patent examination process through work sharing between patent examination agencies. Since the first PPH pilot was launched in November 2011, the State Intellectual Property Office has successively established PPH cooperation with patent examination institutions in 32 countries or regions.

Patent examination highway (Patent Prosecution Highway, referred to as PPH) means that when at least one or more claims contained in the patent application submitted by the applicant in the first application receiving office are considered to be authorized, the applicant may submit a request for accelerated examination to the receiving office of the subsequent application on this basis. The patent examination highway has three characteristics: speeding up approval, saving cost and high authorization rate.

In other words, when the company's patent layout involves multiple countries, it can be based on the authorization of the receiving office of the first application to speed up the review process of the subsequent receiving office.PPH, proposedPPHThe timing and how to presentPPHRequest, in order to help enterprises to complete the global patent layout is of great significance.

• PPType of H

1RegularPPH: That is, after the applicant submits the patent application in the First Acceptance Office (OFF), within the priority period, after the application is taken as the priority and the corresponding application is filed in the Second Acceptance Office (OSF), if the OFF examination determines that the application is patentable/authorized, the applicant may submit a request for accelerated examination of the corresponding application to OSF. Based on country or regional review results.

2.PCT-PPH: That is, after the PCT application has received an affirmative written opinion of patentability or an international preliminary examination report in the international phase, the applicant may request an accelerated examination of the corresponding application after the PCT application has entered the national phase.

3. PPH-MOTTAINAI, on the basis of regular PPH, the acceptance conditions of PPH have been expanded, and the cases where the first application originates from other bureaus or the subsequent application acceptance bureaus take the lead in making the examination results have been added.

• ProposedPPHthe timing

1. General timing: after the application receives the notice of entering the substantive examination stage and before receiving the notice of the first examination opinion of the actual examination stage;
2. Special timing: after the application is announced by the application country, it shall be submitted together with the actual examination request (on the same day). attention shall be paid to the actual examination request fee in time to avoid the failure to pay the fee.PPHNot accepted.

For the proposedPPHIf the request does not meet the requirements, a correction notice will be issued, and the requester must be in30Within a period of days, a corrective reply will be made to correct the defects in the request, with a maximum of two requests for the same Chinese application.PPHrequested opportunities, all subject to the above timing requirements.

• ProposedPPHRequest Required Materials

In accordance with the "Participation in Patent Examination Expressway (PPH) Project Pilot Request Form requires the preparation of relevant contents and relevant documents corresponding to the application (hereinafter referred to as necessary attachments).

Necessary attachments including copies of the claims corresponding to the application and their translationsA copy of the notice of review opinions of the corresponding application and its translation, and a copy of the referenced documents in the notice of review opinions of the corresponding application.

PPH request form, which includes A,B,C,D,EFive items, which are explained in turn below:

Item A: bibliographic data, includingPPHThe requested patent application number.

Item B: Request, including the description of the relationship between the application and the corresponding application, for example, the prior examination bureau, the prior application number, the prior application examination opinion, etc.

Item C: Submission of documents, including submission of necessary annexes and omission of submissions, e.g., PCT-PPHWhen a copy of the claim, a copy of the notice of review opinion and its English translation can be passed.PATENTSCOPEWhen obtained, you can omit the submission.

Item D: claim correspondence, which is also PPHOne of the conditions of the request is that the prior application needs to be related toPPHThe claims of the application are fully corresponding, that is, the scope of protection of the rights of this application need not be greater.OEEThe protection scope of the corresponding item. An explanation of the correspondence of the claims and the patentability of the corresponding application may also be included.

Item E: explanatory matters, including the work results of the corresponding application, the reference documents of the corresponding application, and the explanation of special items.

• Summary

ProposedPPHThe basic requirements of the request can be summarized-12330Specifically:

1: A request timing, that is, after entering the trial to the beginning of the substantive examination.(Excluding special timing);

2:Second submission opportunity, I .e.Up to two opportunities to submit requests for the same Chinese application;

3:three substantive elements, I .e.Application and correspondenceApplicationThe relevance,Authorizability of corresponding application claims/PatentableApplicationSufficient correspondence with the claims of the corresponding application.;

3:Three Required Documents, I .e.PPH Request Form,Copies of the claims of the corresponding application and their translations.,Copy of notice of examination opinion on corresponding application and its translation(Including citations);

0:Zero cost

The PPH project will further promoteBetween countriesExchange and cooperation in the field of intellectual property, servicesCountriesInnovation subjects to speed up the patent examination process,For businesses,PPHIt not only shortens the licensing cycle of overseas patents, but also reduces the licensing cost of global layout patents.PPHApplication to expedite product licensing and to coordinate with national product launches.