Patent Prosecution Highway between the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the European Patent Office (EPA)

On 29 January 2010, the Patent Prosection Highway (PPH) between the JPO and the EPA will be launched. The PPH will enable the examination of claims considered patentable by either of the two Offices to be expedited, on request, at the respective Office of second filing. The Office of second filing may exploit the search and examination results of the respective other Office, thus enabling global patents to be obtained efficiently, the search and examination workload to be reduced and the quality of patent examination to be improved worldwide.