China-Japan PPH pre-pilot program

Per the consensus reached by Mr. Tian Lipu, the Commissioner of the SIPO and Mr. Yoshiyuki Iwai, the Commissioner of the JPTO in May this year, China and Japan have already launched a pre-pilot PPH, and per the program the SIPO has so far received over 10 patent applications from Japan, and will ask the JPTO to select some applications from China to try the pre-pilot. According to Mr. Tian, the two offices will assess the program after the conclusion of pre-pilot, have further negotiations before officially entering into the PPH program.

PPH means a framework whereby patent applicants whose applications have been assumed as patentable by a patent office (the Office of First Filing, OFF) are entitled to request, through a simple procedure, for an accelerated examination of the corresponding applications in another patent office (an Office of Second Filing, OSF) based on the examination results of the OFF. The PPH helps applicants acquire patents more speedily outside their home countries, while reducing the workload of patent offices by allowing them to use the results of prior art search and examination by the OFF.