1 July 2022
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme between the
EPO and IP Australia (IPA) becomes permanent on 1 July 2022. The current conditions and requirements
for participation will continue to apply.
The offices
have agreed to permanently extend the agreement, following the successful
completion of a pilot programme, which was initially launched in July 2016 and
extended in July 2019.
In addition to
this PPH programme, the EPO has operational PPH pilot programmes with the IP5 offices
(the grouping of the world’s five largest IP offices, made up of the European
Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent
Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the National
Intellectual Property Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNIPA)
and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)), as well as with the national patent offices of Brazil,
Canada, Colombia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore
and Saudi Arabia.