Patent Prosecution Highway agreement version 2.0 between the DKPTO and the USPTO
Effective from today, 3 June 2103, the PPH agreement between The Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) and The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been upgraded to what the DKPTO aptly calls a “PPH-agrement version 2.0”.
With the PPH agreement version 2.0 – to this blogger’s knowledge the first of its kind – a significant simplification is introduced. Now, it no longer matters which office is the Office of First Filing and Office of Second Filing, respectively.
In more detail it is now possible to proceed as follows:
- File a first patent application with the USPTO.
- File a second patent application claiming the priority of the first application with the DKPTO, and
- File a request for examination under the PPH in the US patent application with the USPTO using the result of the examination made by the DKPTO.
Hence, in contrast to the original and now superseded agreement, it is now also possible to use the examination result of the Office of Second Filing to request examination under the PPH at the Office of First Filing. In the original agreement it was only possible to use the examination result of the Office of First Filing to request examination under the PPH at the Office of Second Filing.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that with the arrival of June the Indonesian patent office has entered the PPH network by signing a PPH agreement with the Japanese Patent Office.
As always, we shall endeavour to keep our readers updated on further developments.
Link to the DKPTO-USPTO PPH-agreement version 2.0:
At DKPTO: http://www.dkpto.dk/media/20511122/pph2.0_us_filers_03062013.pdf
At USPTO: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/og/2013/week22/TOC.htm#ref15
Troels Peter Rørdam, European Patent Attorney & Certified Danish Patent Agent
