China and Japan establish a PPH to shorten patent prosecution period

2011/10/24

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)