The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) and German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) have recently agreed to extend the SIPO-DPMA Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project, which ended on 23 January 2018, for three years. That is, the extended PPH program is effective from 23 January 2018 until 22 January 2021.

 

This PPH program commenced in 2012 and has been extended in 2014 and 2016 respectively. It is a bilateral work-sharing initiative between SIPO and DPMA for the purpose of accelerating patent examination. An applicant who has filed a patent application with one office (first office) under the program may file a request for the expedited examination of the application with the partner office (second office) on condition that the application has at least one claim allowed by the first office.