By Donald Zuhn --
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program with the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), which was initiated on September 4, 2007, would be extended until further notice. The USPTO and UKIPO will continue to periodically monitor the program to determine whether it should be fully implemented at a later date.
Under the extension, the USPTO and UKIPO will continue to accept applications for participation in the PPH, which permits an applicant having an application whose claims have been allowed by one office to fast track the examination of an application in the other office, such that the latter application would be examined out of turn. In particular, an applicant receiving a ruling from either the UKIPO or the USPTO that at least one claim in an application is patentable may request that the other office fast track the examination of corresponding claims in the corresponding application.
The USPTO also announced that under modifications to the PPH pilot program introduced last January, certain applications based on PCT filings are now eligible for participation in the PPH program.
For additional information on this and other related topics, please see:
• "Patent Prosecution Highway Extended to IP Australia," April 2, 2008
• "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
Comments