Patent Prosecution Highway pilot programme between the European Patent Office and the Israel Patent Office based on PCT and national work products I. Background The European Patent Office (EPO) and the Israel Patent Office (ILPO) announced on 5 December 2014 their intention to launch a comprehensive Patent Prosecution Highway pilot programme. The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) leverages fast-track patent examination procedures already available at the offices to allow applicants to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. It also permits each office to exploit the work previously done by the other office.
A bill to establish a pilot program in certain United States district courts to encour age enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges; with an amendment (Rept. Drum Library Vol 1 Zip Wall. Referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union. PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS Under clause 2 of rule XII.
PPH pilot programme The PPH enables an applicant whose claims have been determined to be patentable/allowable to have a corresponding application filed with a PPH partner office processed in an accelerated manner while at the same time allowing the offices involved to exploit available work results. Under the PPH pilot programme a PPH request can be based either on the latest PCT work product (written opinion of the ISA (WO-ISA) or international preliminary examination report (IPER)) established by one of the participating offices as ISA or IPEA, or on the national work product established during the processing of a national application or a PCT application that has entered the national phase before one of the participating offices, where this work product determines one or more claims to be patentable/ allowable. Where the EPO work product contains one or more claims that are determined to be patentable/allowable, the applicant may request participation in the PPH pilot programme at ILPO. The procedures and requirements for filing a request with ILPO are available via. For the purposes of this notice Office of Earlier Examination (OEE) refers to ILPO, also in its capacity as ISA and/or IPEA, the work product of which is used as a basis for the PPH request, while the Office of Later Examination (OLE) refers to the EPO as the office before which participation in the PPH pilot programme is being requested. Trial period for the PPH pilot programme between the EPO and ILPO The PPH pilot programme between the EPO and ILPO will commence on 6 January 2015, for a period of three years ending on 5 January 2018. The requirements laid forth below will apply to PPH requests filed with the EPO on or after 6 January 2015.
The EPO and ILPO will evaluate the results of the pilot programme to determine whether and how the programme should be fully implemented after the trial period. The trial period may be extended if necessary to adequately assess the feasibility of the PPH programme. The EPO may also terminate the PPH pilot programme early if the volume of participation exceeds a manageable level, or for any other reason. Notice will be published if the PPH pilot programme between the EPO and ILPO is terminated before 5 January 2018. Requirements for requesting participation in the PPH pilot programme between the EPO and ILPO In order to be eligible to participate in the PPH pilot programme at the EPO, the following requirements must be met: (1) The EP application for which participation in the PPH pilot programme is requested must have the same earliest date with the corresponding application, whether this be the priority or filing date of a corresponding national application filed with ILPO (see Annex 1) or a corresponding PCT application for which ILPO has been ISA and/or IPEA (see Annex 2).
(2) The corresponding application(s) must have at least one claim indicated by ILPO in its capacity as a national office or ISA and/or IPEA to be patentable/allowable. The claim(s) determined as novel, inventive and industrially applicable by the ISA and/or IPEA has/have the meaning of patentable/allowable for the purposes of this notice. (3) All claims in the EP application for which a request for participation in the PPH pilot programme is made must sufficiently correspond to the patentable/allowable claims in the OEE corresponding application(s).
Claims are considered to sufficiently correspond where, accounting for differences due to claim format requirements, the claims are of the same or a similar scope or the claims in the EP application are narrower in scope than the claims in the OEE corresponding application(s). In this regard, a claim that is narrower in scope occurs when an OEE claim is amended to be further limited by an additional feature that is supported in the specification (description and/or claims). Additionally, a claim in the EP application which introduces a new/different category of claims than those indicated to be patentable/allowable by the OEE is not considered to sufficiently correspond.
For example, where the OEE claims only contain claims to a process of manufacturing a product, then the claims in the EP application are not considered to sufficiently correspond if the EP claims introduce product claims that are dependent on the corresponding process claims. The applicant is required to declare that the claims between the EP and the OEE applications sufficiently correspond. (4) Substantive examination of the EP application for which participation in the PPH pilot programme is requested has not begun. The examination starting date is visible for unpublished applications only at the request of the applicant or his representative or by inspecting the file using the MyFiles service, for published applications to all in the European Patent Register.
Documents required for participation in the PPH pilot programme For participation in the PPH pilot programme at the EPO the applicant has to: (1) file a request for participation in the PPH pilot programme. Applications for which the EPO was ISA and/or IPEA are not eligible for processing via the PPH before the EPO as DO/EO. The EPO understanding of the PPH is that an application is processed in an accelerated manner on the basis of a patentability assessment made by another office. Where the EPO has been ISA and/or IPEA, the PCT WO/ISA or IPER have effectively the same status as a first communication in substantive examination before the EPO as DO/EO. Thus, in this case there is no work product that can be considered as work done by 'another' office. This case can, however, fall under the regular programme for accelerated processing of European patent applications ('PACE') which the applicant can request.
Roscoe Dash Everyday Free Mp3 Download. ILPO: ILPATSEARCH, Israel Patent Office database Notice from the EPO dated 4 May 2010 concerning the programme for the accelerated prosecution of European patent applications – 'PACE', OJ EPO 2010, 352.