The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will start a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project on September 1, 2011 to expedite examination of applications for the same patents filed in the two countries, according to TIPO.
PPH is a framework to allow an OSF (office of second filing) to accelerate the examination of applications using the research and examination results done by an OFF (office of first filing) for the same inventions, TIPO said. Thus, PPH avoids duplication of examining work and accelerates the examination off patent applications, but does not bind an OSF to approve applications initially approved by an OFF, TIPO indicated.
Applicants filing with the USPTO can later file with TIPO and may submit a request for accelerated examination if the USPTO's examination gives patents to more than one claim, TIPO explained. The same situation holds for applicants filing with TIPO and later with USPTO.
Article translated by Adam Hwang
