Swedish patent applicants and others using the Swedish Patent- och registreringsverket (PRV) as the office for first filing of patent applications are getting new possibilities for obtaining accelerated prosecution of their following foreign patent applications; the PRV are expanding their participation in the international PPH network with a number of new PPH agreements.
Effective 1 October 2013 the PRV together with the JPO launched their first PPH agreement using national work products.
Furthermore, the PRV and the Korean IP Office (KIPO) have signed pilot PPH agreements using both national and PCT work products. These pilot agrements will, according to the PRV website, take effect on 1 January 2014.
Finally, the PRV also plans on signing a pilot PPH agreement using national work products with the USPTO. This pilot agreement is, again according to the PRV website, planned to enter into force on 1 January 2014.
Hence, so far it is now, or will within short be, possible to request accelerated prosecution of a Japanese, Korean or US patent application claiming priority of a Swedish patent application based on the examination results of the PRV. Furthermore, it is not unlikely that more PPH agreements will follow – and in any event the Awapatent IP Blog will follow the developments.
Troels Peter Rørdam, European Patent Attorney & Certified Danish Patent Agent
