1 July 2022
The EPO and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property
(SAIP) are launching their joint Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot
programme to enable accelerated treatment of patent applications in both
regions. The agreement enters into force on 1 July 2022 for an initial
3-year-term.
This follows the signing of a Reinforced Partnership
agreement in November 2021 and the renewal of an overarching Memorandum of
Understanding on bilateral co-operation between the EPO and SAIP in June
2022.
Under the pilot programme, applicants whose claims have been
examined by the EPO or SAIP may ask for accelerated processing of their
corresponding application at the other office. The two offices will also share
existing work results and data, thereby reducing duplication of efforts and
increasing efficiency, leading to reduced costs for users. The PPH pilot
programme increases the efficiency and quality of the patent-granting process
by enabling the offices to make use of each other’s work.
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 and Singapore.