Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
As patent granting procedures can take several years, the patent offices are also looking for ways to speed up procedures. Several leading patent offices are therefore participating in Patent Prosecution Highways, which involves the exchange of search and examination results between patent offices for a patent applied for in several countries. In this way, a patent that is considered to be grantable by one patent office can also be granted more quickly in other countries.
On 29 January 2010, the trilateral pilot project PCT Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) of the European Patent Office, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office was launched. This project gives applicants for an international patent application the opportunity to request accelerated examination by the participating patent offices if the international search has established the patentability of the invention applied for. For example, a German applicant who has filed an international patent application under the PCT with the European Patent Office and has obtained a positive result in the international search may expect not only a European patent to be granted in the short term, but also a US patent and a Japanese patent to be granted in the near future, provided that he has applied for patent protection in these countries and makes use of the possibilities offered by the PPH.
The German Patent and Trademark Office has Patent Prosecution Highways with several patent offices. Thus, an applicant for a German patent for which a positive result was obtained in the German examination procedure can also expect a patent to be granted soon, e.g. in Japan or the USA, provided that he has filed patent applications in these countries using the priority of the German patent application.
the EPO participates in the PPH of the five largest patent offices in the world (IP5) teil
the EPO has also agreed PPH programmes with other countries