Brief Information

When foreign patenting is carried out both under the traditional procedure provided via the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and under the PCT procedure, the applicant can use the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Program.

The PPH Program is based on the international work distribution between examiners of the Patent Offices participating in the PPH Program in case of a similar application filed with a Patent Office of each of such countries within the framework of foreign patenting.

The PPH Program gives an opportunity to use the results of examination of an application for grant a patent made by examiners of a Patent Office of a country where an application was filed filing (Office of First Filing, OFF) or carried out by examiners of a Patent Office where said application was examined earlier (Office of Earlier Examination, OEE) in the course of examination of a similar application for invention by examiners of a Patent Office of the second filing (Office of Second Filing, OSF) or by examiners of a Patent Office where said application was examined later (Office of Later Examination, OLE).

Participation in the PPH program is possible in case of applicant has received a written opinion from OEE establishing at least one independent claim of the patent application as an allowable/patentable (for PPH, PPH-Mottainai and GPPH programs) or in case of applicant has received a written opinion from international search authority and/or international preliminary examination authority (ISA/IPEA) establishing at least one independent claim of the patent application as an allowable/patentable (for PCT-PPH and GPPH programs).

Plurilateral agreement under the GPPH program that has priority over all the bilateral PPH agreements contracted earlier was signed between Rospatent and the Patent Offices of Austria, Australia, United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Canada, Israel, South Korea, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, the USA, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Japan and with the Northern Patent Institute. Bilateral agreement under the PPH and PCT-PPH programs was signed between Rospatent and the Patent Office of China (SIPO), and bilateral agreement under the PPH-MOTTAINAI and PCT-PPH programs was signed between Rospatent and European Paten Office (EPO).

Global PPH