The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has announced its participation in the "PPH Improvement Initiative", which aims to improve the user experience of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH).
This collaborative effort involves five leading intellectual property (IP) offices known as IP5: China, the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
The initiative's primary goal is to achieve an average processing time of three months from the PPH request grant to the issuance of the first office action. Additionally, it aims to reduce the average response time from examiners to applicants, providing PPH users with a more predictable examination cycle.
CNIPA & the PPH
Since November 2011, the CNIPA has built PPH ties with patent offices in 32 countries or regions, enhancing international cooperation in patent prosecution. Over the decade, China and many partner countries have decided to extend the period of their PPH pilot programs to continuously serve innovators by accelerating the patent examination process. In January 2024, the CNIPA announced an extension of its PPH agreement with the German patent office for another three years to January 2027. It also extended its PPH agreement with Chile and Denmark until the end of 2028.
Furthermore, the CNIPA still currently maintains IP5 PPH program with all IP5 offices.
Benefits for patent owners
With the PPH Improvement Initiative, IP5 has set a target of three months for the average cycle time of issuance of the first office action and the average cycle time of response to applicant's opinion in 2024.
Our team in China has observed much faster times for grant of Chinese patents by utilising PPH programs in recent years. As China joins this initiative, applicants will have a more predictable examination cycle for a Chinese patent application participating PPH programs.
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