EPO extends fast –track pilot programmes with four countries

22 December 2017

With effect
from 6 January 2018, the EPO will be extending its PPH pilot
programmes with four partners around the globe, namely Canada, Israel, Mexico
and Singapore, thus enabling innovators from Europe and these countries to
continue obtaining patents more quickly and efficiently.

All four PPH
pilot programmes are being extended for three years until 5 January 2021, and
the current conditions and requirements for participation will continue to
apply.

The trials with
Canada, Mexico and Singapore stem from bilateral agreements which EPO President
Benoît Battistelli signed with the respective heads of patent offices at the
side lines of the 2014 World Intellectual Property Organization General
Assembly in Geneva. The PPH with Israel resulted from an agreement signed with the
Israel Patent Office in December 2015.

The EPO’s PPH portfolio

In addition
to these four extended programmes, the EPO has operational PPH pilot programmes
with the IP5 offices (the grouping of the world’s five largest IP offices, made
up of the EPO and the patent offices of China, Japan, Korea, and the US), as
well as with the national patent offices of Australia, Brazil, Colombia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia and the Eurasian Patent Office.

Further information