Speed Bump on the Patent Prosecution Highway

摘要

Patent Prosecution Highways (PPH) have been established pursuant to bilateral agreements between patent offices of different countries. Upon an indication of al-lowability of an application in one patent office, another patent office with which it has a PPH agreement will accelerate its consideration of the corresponding application, provided the claims being considered are the same as those allowed by the first office. The rationale behind the PPH is to avoid duplication of effort by the patent offices and provide a reduced pendency for applications.