By Donald Zuhn --
Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the USPTO and Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) will be extending the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program between the Offices for an additional two years to January 28, 2011. The USPTO and CIPO will evaluate the results of the PPH pilot program at the end of the two-year period to determine whether and how the program should be fully implemented.
As we reported earlier this year (see links below), the USPTO and CIPO initiated the one-year PPH pilot on January 28, 2008. The objective of the PPH is to share the results of each Office's searches in order to make examination more efficient. The PPH allows an application that has allowable/patentable claims as determined in the Office of first filing (OFF) to have a corresponding application in the Office of second filing (OSF) to be advanced out of turn for examination, and give the OSF access to the search and examination results from the OFF. Thus, the applicant can enjoy accelerated examination in the OSF, which is based on the art and examination already dealt with in the OFF.
Inquiries regarding the PPH pilot program should be directed to Magdalen Greenlief at 571-272-8800 or via e-mail (Magdalen.greenlief@us~to.gov).
• "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
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