By Christopher P. Singer --
In a Notice, dated April 13, 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it will continue the existing Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program with the Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) for an unspecified period of time in order to gather more information and assess the feasibility of the program prior to making the PPH program permanent.
In a separate Notice, dated April 14, 2009, the USPTO announced that it will begin another PPH Pilot Program with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). The new pilot program will begin on April 27, 2009 and last until April 27, 2011. The forms for applicants interested in taking part in this program will be made available on the DMPA's website and the USPTO's website (Form PTO/SB/20DE) on April 27, 2009. The following types of applications will be eligible for participation in this program:
1. U.S. applications filed under the Paris convention that either have (a) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) and 37 C.F.R. § 1.55 to one or more applications filed with the DPMA or (b) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. §§ 119(a) or 365(a) to a PCT application containing no priority claims.
2. U.S. National stage applications filed under the PCT, where the PCT application has (a) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 365(b) to an application filed with the DPMA; (b) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 365(b) to a PCT application containing no priority claims; or (c) contains no priority claim.
3. A bypass continuation application filed under 35 U.S.C. § 111(a) with a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to a PCT application, where the PCT application has (a) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 365(b) to an application filed with the DPMA; (b) a valid priority claim under 35 U.S.C. § 365(b) to a PCT application containing no priority claim; or (c) contains no priority claim.
The Notice provides several examples of specific application types that fall within those requirements.
As mentioned in prior posts regarding the other participant Offices, 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.
Comments