Fast-track patent examination launched with Malaysia and the Philippines

4 July 2017

On 1 July the EPO
launched Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programmes with the patent offices of Malaysia and the Philippines to enable
work-sharing and accelerated treatment of patent applications.

This follows the signing of PPH agreements
in October 2016 by EPO President Benoît Battistelli and Dato’ Shamsiah
Kamaruddin, Director General of the Intellectual Property Corporation of
Malaysia, and with Josephine Santiago, Director General of the Intellectual
Property Office of the Philippines.

“We are pleased to launch these programmes
with Malaysia and the Philippines, two important markets in the dynamic ASEAN
region,” said EPO President Battistelli. “The fast-track procedures
will enable companies and inventors from Europe and these two Southeast Asian countries
to obtain patents more quickly and efficiently, boosting business and
innovation in both our regions.”

Under the pilot programmes, which will cover PCT
and national work products and will each run for an initial period of three
years starting 1 July 2017, applicants whose claims have been found to be
patentable by the EPO or the Malaysian or Philippine patent office may ask for
accelerated processing of their corresponding application at the other office,
while the EPO and the two partner offices will share existing work results,
speeding up the granting process and reducing costs for users.

The EPO already has operational PPH pilot
programmes with the IP5 offices (a grouping of the world’s five largest IP
offices, namely the EPO, China, Japan, Korea, and the US), as well as with the
national patent offices of Australia, Canada, Colombia, Israel, Mexico, Russia
and Singapore.

Further information