News & Infomation
简报
November 2010
November 2010Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Is Very Helpful in Reducing Costs and Accelerating Patent Examination
1. Reduction of examination costs and examination period by 1/2
Recently, as Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) requests increase, our firm analyzed the usefulness of PPH statistically. Among the 21 PPH cases requested since January ~ August 2010, 15 applications were decided as to be granted a patent right and the average period from PPH request to allowance was 5.5 months. The histories of 15 allowed patent cases are such as the following:
(1) 33.3% were allowed without a notice of rejection after PPH request
5 cases were decided as to be granted a patent right without any notice of rejection within 2 months from the date of PPH request.
(2) 66.6% were allowed after 1 time notice of preliminary rejection based on description requirement after PPH request
The rest 10 cases were decided as to be granted a patent right after a 1-time notice of preliminary rejection after PPH request. Most of the rejection reasons were based on the description requirement of the specification and/or claims.
(3) 14.3% were preliminarily rejected based on the prior arts after PPH request
Among the 21 PPH cases requested, only 3 applications (14.3%) were rejected based on the prior arts.
(4) Advantages of PPH request
In case of patent applications without PPH request, average of 1.5 times of notice of rejection were notified till the notice of allowance. Moreover, in case of rejection based on the prior arts, analyzing the refusal reason and preparing opinions/amendments take more time and costs than a case of violation of description requirement. Accordingly, considering such circumstances, it can be held that 1/2 of costs (including attorney fees and official fees) may be reduced in average when PPH is requested. If patent rights were granted already in a foreign country, it is not easy to obtain broader claims than already granted claims from KIPO unless extraordinary circumstances exist; therefore, PPH system will be considered as a very useful tool for patent applicants.
2. Countries that allows PPH requests
After Korean Intellectual Property Office and Japanese Patent Office signed PPH Agreement in April of 2007, currently the United States, Denmark, the UK, Canada, Russia, Finland and Germany signed PPH Agreement.
* 如果您想退订，请点击 [浏览].