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Notice of 21 January 2016

Chinese and German offices extend Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot

Since 23 January 2012, patent applicants have been able to request accelerated examination of their applications at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and at the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO). This option will continue to be available. The DPMA and SIPO have extended the pilot programme's duration by a further two years until 22 January 2018. Otherwise, it would have run out on 22 January 2016.

The PPH allows the applicant to file a request for accelerated examination as soon as at least one patent claim has been found to be patentable by the partner office. The DPMA will then carry out an independent search on the basis of the partner office's work results. The applicant benefits from the sharing of work results between the offices. This can even further expand prior art search.

The DPMA has had a long-standing relationship of close cooperation with SIPO. In addition to the bilateral PPH agreement with SIPO the DPMA takes part in the Global PPH pilot, in which 21 offices in total are participating.

More information on the PPH programme with SIPO is available here.

Last updated: 11 November 2024