SIPO's Bilateral PPH Pilot Programs with UK, Icelandic & Swedish Patent Offices Take Effect 1 July 2014
The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) has concluded three bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot agreements, which were signed with the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), the Icelandic Patent Office (IPO), and the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) respectively.
The pilot programmes take effect on 1 July 2014, and run for an initial period of two years until 30 June 2016. Each of the PPH pilot programmes allow an applicant who has filed a patent application with a patent office to request for accelerated processing of a corresponding application at the other office under the respective bilateral agreement, provided that one or more of the claims in the earlier application are indicated to be patentable by the earlier office.
In addition to bilateral national PPH route, the SIPO-IPO pilot programme also offers a one-way PCT-PPH route, by which Chinese applicants may file a PCT-PPH request with IPO.
