Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program between Japan and Austria
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Austrian Patent Office (APO) agreed to commence the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program on July 1, 2009, at the APO/JPO Heads Meeting held in Vienna on May 19, 2009.
The need for companies to obtain patents in many countries has been increasing throughout the world along with the expansion of their global activities. The PPH provides accelerated examination by permitting each participating patent office to use the examination result by the other patent office.
The countries with which Japan has implemented the PPH pilot program include the U.S., the U.K., Korea, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Russia. The combined total of the patent applications in these eight countries and Japan make up 64% of all patent applications in the world. We believe the PPH network will continue to expand.
For details, please visit the following URL:
http://www.jpo.go.jp/cgi/link.cgi?url=/torikumi/t_torikumi/patent_highway.htm