2006 Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office

On May 22, 2006, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published information about a patent prosecution highway pilot program between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office.

The information can be found here:
http://www.patentsusa.com/20060522_Japan_highway.pdf

The USPTO noted that since the beginning of 2003, the USPTO, the European Patent Office, and the Japan Patent Office participated in search exchange projects. The USPTO continued that the results of the prior projects show that there is a potential benefit in exploiting the search results of the office of first filing to reduce workload in the office of second filing.

The patent prosecution highway pilot program enables an applicant whose claims are determined to be allowable/patentable in the office of first filing to have the corresponding application filed in the office of second filing advanced out of turn for examination while at the same time allowing the office of second filing to exploit the search and examination results of the office of first filing.

Where the USPTO is the office of second (e.g., for applications originating in Japan) the corresponding application filed in Japan contains claims that are determined to be allowable, the applicant may request participation in the Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot Program in the USPTO and petition to make the U.S. application special.

Where the USPTO is the office of first filing and the U.S. application contains claims that are determined to be allowable, the U.S. applicant may request accelerated examination in Japan for the corresponding application filed in Japan. The procedures for filing a request for participation in the pilot program are available from the Japanese Patent Office website at http://www.jpo.go.jp/index.htm

The pilot program commenced on July 3, 2006 for a period of one year ending on July 3, 2007.