Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
The National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR) has launched Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) cooperative projects with the patent offices of Japan, the United States of America, the Korean Republic, and Hungary. PPH agreements enable patent offices to exchange information and speeds up the processing of patent applications. Through these agreements, a Finnish patent applicant can request accelerated processing at the other office, if the claims in a corresponding application filed with that office have already been allowed by the NBPR.
The pilot agreement with Japan entered into force on 20 April 2009 and it is in force until the end of March 2011, at which point continuation of the agreement will be decided on. The one-year pilot period with the US Patent and Trademark Office started on 6 July 2009. PPH co-operation with the Korean Republic and Hungary started on 4 January 2010.
Countries participating in the PPH co-operation
Accelerated PPH processing at the NBPR (National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland)
Request for accelerated PPH processing at the NBPR can be made by following these guidelines:
NBPR Guideline for JP Filers
NBPR Guideline for US Filers
NBPR Guideline for KIPO Filers
NPBR Guideline for HU Filers
Here are the PPH Request Forms which can be sent to NBPR on paper or electronically by using Epoline Online Filing:
For JP filers Word format PDF format
For US filers Word format
For the KIPO Filers Word format
For the HU Filers Word format
Accelerated PPH processing at the JPO
Request for accelerated PPH processing at the JPO can be made by following these guidelines:
Accelerated PPH processing at the USPTO
Request for accelerated PPH processing at the USPTO can be made by following these guidelines:
Accelerated PPH processing at the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)
Request for accelerated PPH processing at the KIPO can be made by following these guidelines:
Announcement about the PPH pilot program between NBPR and KIPO
Accelerated PPH processing at the Hungarian Patent Office
Request for accelerated PPH processing at the HPO can be made by following these guidelines:
Press release about PPH collaboration with Hungary
Additional information: website of the Hungarian Patent Office
Martti Enäjärvi, President of the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland and Jung-Sik Koh, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, signed the cooperation agreement for their respective organisations. Photo: Eero Mantere
Presidents of the Offices Martti Enäjärvi and Miklós Bendzsel signed the PPH agreement in Budapest at the Embassy of Finland.
What is PPH?
The PPH is a bilateral agreement between two national intellectual property offices. It provides applicants with fast-track patent examination procedures to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. It will also permit each office to make use of the work previously done by the other office and reduce duplication. Thus, the PPH initiative will reduce the examination workload and improve patent quality.
PPH is a voluntary option for patent applicants. It is noted that the intellectual property office of second filing is not compelled to accept the opinion of the intellectual property office of first filing and that the intellectual property office of second filing is always solely responsible for its decisions. At the NBPR substantive examination is conducted based on the Finnish patent law and examination guidelines.
Background
In the modern global economy many companies and some individual applicants have a growing need to acquire patent protection for the same invention in a number of different countries. This may require separate patent applications be filed with in many different national intellectual property offices, each considering the patent application independently of the others.
With this in mind, the Finnish Patent Office has been investigating the possibility of international collaboration with other national intellectual property offices to enable national offices to exploit relevant work already conducted by another national office.
At present, the following patent offices have established one or more PPH agreements: Japan, USA, Singapore, Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, Korea, Denmark, Finland, Russia and the European Patent Office.
Further Information
Mr. Juha Rekola
Development Director
E-mail: firstname.surname@prh.fi
Tel: +358 9 6939 5504
Dr. Kenneth Gustafsson
Patent Examiner
E-mail: firstname.surname@prh.fi
Tel: +358 9 6939 5720
Dr. Ari Hirvonen
Patent Examiner
E-mail: firstname.surname@prh.fi
Tel: +358 9 6939 5726
Matti Pasanen
Patent Examiner
E-mail: firstname.surname@prh.fi
Tel: +358 9 6939 5843
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