The reporter learned recently from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) that starting from January 1, 2015, applicants and patent attorneys would need to use the newly amended Application Form for Participating in Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Projects when filling requests for PPH pilot projects.

To offer better services to applicants and patent attorneys and make the filling of requests for PPH pilot projects more convenient, SIPO together with relevant PPH offices amended the Application Form for Participating in Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Projects, which is officially adopted from January 1, 2015. The amended Application Form takes the places of the original Application Form for Participating in Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Projects and the original Corresponding Table for Claims; for filing explanation, please refer to the pop-up window of the user side.

As we know, PPH is the way for accelerated examination when applicants submit patent applications abroad. With PPH, applications could be acceleratedly examined and applicants are likely to know the official actions more quickly; cost for patent application and replies to the official actions could be reduced, and the possibility for the patent application to be granted could be increased. By June 30, 2014, Chinese patent applicants has made use of this highway and submitted PPH requests to foreign patent institutions for 1,117 patent applications, among which includes 424 general PPH requests and 693 PCT-PPH requests.

Date: January 5, 2015        
Source: State Intellectual Property Office