By Christopher P. Singer --
In an April 1, 2008 notice, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) will launch sometime this month a new trial cooperation initiative with the USPTO as part of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program. The trial program with Australia is set to expire on April 14, 2009. The list of PPH participants, or trial program participants, continues to expand and now includes Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, and the UK. Additional information regarding participation in the Australian PPH program can be found at the following links at the USPTO website and the IP Australia website.
As mentioned in prior posts regarding the other participant Offices (see links below), the motivation behind the PPH is to leverage fast-track patent examination in participant offices so that applicants can obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently in each participant country. Further, the PPH program should allow each office to benefit from work previously done by the initial examining office and consequently reduce examination workload and improve patent quality.
For additional information of this and other related topics, please see:
• "Patent Prosecution Highway Network Expands to Canada & Korea," January 29, 2008
• "USPTO Announces Two Additional Partners in the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program," January 17, 2008
• "USPTO and JPO to Implement Patent Prosecution Highway on Full-Time Basis," December 27, 2007
• "USPTO and UK IPO to Collaborate on Patent Prosecution Highway," September 14, 2007
• "Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program to Be Extended," June 28, 2007
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