New PPH Pilot Project Agreement between CIPO and UKIPO

A new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project between Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) will commence on January 31, 2012, for a period of two years ending on January 30, 2014.

The PPH pilot will allow applicants at CIPO and the UKIPO to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. The PPH pilot will also permit CIPO and the UKIPO to benefit from work previously done by the other country's patent office, in turn reducing examination workload and improving patent quality.

This agreement is similar CIPO's other PPH agreements. In addition to this agreement, CIPO has one indeterminate PPH agreement with the USPTO and six additional pilot agreements with the patent offices of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea and Spain. CIPO also has PCT-PPH pilot project base on PCT work products established by CIPO as the International Searching Authority (ISA) and/or International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA).

During the pilot, CIPO will continue to process requests for advanced prosecution under the PPH program free of charge. Regular fees (Schedule II of the Patent Rules) for requesting examination will continue to apply.

The trial period may be extended if necessary to adequately assess the feasibility of the PPH pilot. Each intellectual property office will evaluate the results of their respective pilot project to determine whether the projects should be fully implemented after the trial period.

Please note that the Offices may terminate the PPH pilot if the volume of participation exceeds a manageable level, or for any other reason (a notice will be published if the PPH pilot project agreement is terminated).

For more information on the CIPO-UKIPO PPH pilot, visit the CIPO's webpage for the CIPO-UKIPO PPH agreement, email the PPH Coordinator or call the CIPO Client Service Center at 819-934-0544 or toll free at 1-866-997-1936.