The Japan Patent Office (JPO) continues to expand its Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) network with pilot programs initiated with the National Institutes of Industrial Property (INPI) of Brazil and Argentina, respectively, from April 1, 2017. The JPO plans to start a PPH program with Chile, as well, soon. This enables inventors in Brazil and Argentina to seek speedier prosecution of patent rights in Japan, and vice versa.
Japan has been actively developing PPH programs with many countries around the world. For years it has had PPH agreements with the world's four other largest patent offices, enabling applicants from the United States, Europe, China (PRC), and Korea (ROK) to take advantage of examination results by any of these patent office for speedier examination by the JPO.
PPH programs let applicants request that the positive examination results given by an earlier or faster examining patent office be considered and applied by a later or slower examining office, provided the claims of the invention correspond closely enough to the allowed claims that were examined and allowed earlier. This can greatly reduce the wait on examination results. It is an option applicants with positive examination results in many countries may want to consider when seeking speedy IP prosecution in Japan.
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