Reportedly, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China and its Japanese counterpart entered an agreement on October 17 to establish a patent prosecution highway, which will greatly reduce the patent prosecution period for applicants in both countries.
The China-Japan agreement will take into effect from November, 2011. In the past, it took 2 to 3 years to prosecute each patent application filed by Japanese enterprises in China. From now on, the prosecution time will be shortened to half a year, facilitating Japanese enterprises to play a part in Chinese markets.
It is the first time for China to sign such a deal with a foreign country. But Japan has signed 16 PPH agreements with other countries and regions including Europe and America.
According to the agreement, for a patent application recognized by one party, the other party just needs to save the file for approval, which simplifies the examination procedures. [Chinese version is available on huanqiu.com]
(Source: IPR in China)
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