Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is an initiative that provides a means of significantly accelerating examination of patent applications if examination work has already been conducted at another intellectual property office.

Under PPH agreements, if claims of an application have been found to be acceptable by a first intellectual property office, an accelerated examination can be requested at a second intellectual property office. Canadian patent applications will be examined in accordance with the Canadian Patent Act and Patent Rules and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office's (CIPO) Patent Office Practice.

CIPO's PPH pilot programs

• United States Patent and Trademark Office (January 28, 2008, to January 28, 2011)
• Japan Patent Office (October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2011)
• Danish Patent and Trademark Office (October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2011)
• Korean Intellectual Property Office (October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2011)

Further Information

Any inquiries concerning the PPH may be directed to the PPH Project Manager at pph@ic.gc.ca or by calling the CIPO Client Service Center at 819-934-0544 or toll-free at 1-866-997-1936.

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News and Updates

October 2009 Update

Streamlining the Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program: CIPO is taking a lead role in streamlining the PPH pilot programs to enable intellectual property offices to achieve the expected efficiencies while making the PPH more attractive and flexible for users. CIPO's PPH pilot programs will begin to implement a more streamlined version of the PPH featuring an enhanced practice of the claim correspondence requirement.

Effective October 1, 2009, the definition of claim correspondence has been amended to be more flexible by allowing the applicant to include claims that are narrower in scope before the office of second filing while still retaining sufficient correspondence between claims found to be allowable in the office of first filing and those before the office of second filing.

July 2009 Update

• Report on the PPH Pilot Program between the CIPO and the USPTO for the trial period of January 28, 2008 to January 31, 2009 (PDF - 197 KB - 10 pages)
• Should you be on the Patent Prosecution Highway? (PDF - 797 KB - 1 page, ISBN : Iu71-4/17-2009)

January 2009 Update

Revision of Requirements and Procedures of PPH Pilot Program

Effective January 26, 2009, the requirements and procedures of the PPH pilot program have been revised to expand potential participation in this initiative. As of this date, certain patent applications based on Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) filings (where the PCT application does not contain any priority claim) will also qualify to participate in the PPH pilot program.

December 2008 Update

• Two-Year Extension of the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program between the CIPO and the USPTO.

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Client Feedback

Your feedback is important to us. In order to gauge the interest of applicants and to assess the anticipated benefits to each office, CIPO needs to hear from you. As part of our assessment of the project, CIPO asks that PPH participants provide their feedback on the pilot program by completing the questionnaire accompanying the office correspondence related to your PPH request. For an electronic copy of the questionnaire, please contact the PPH Project Manager.

Please return the questionnaire to:

PPH Project Manager
Email: pph@ic.gc.ca
Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Place du Portage I
50 Victoria Street
Gatineau QC K1A 0C9
Fax: 819-994-1989