Patent Prosecution Highway Between USPTO and INPI (Pilot)

 Versão em português

Under this pilot program of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), an applicant who receives a positive ruling on a patent claim(s) from either the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) or the USPTO may request accelerated prosecution of corresponding claim(s) in the other office.

The PPH allows the applicant to obtain a patentability decision in the office of later examination (OLE) more quickly. Furthermore, the PPH promotes patent application processing efficiency by allowing the examiner in the OLE to reuse the search and examination results from the office of earlier examination, thereby reducing workload and duplication of effort.

As of May 25, 2010, the USPTO has eliminated the fee for the petition to make special under the PPH programs.

The trial period for this PPH pilot program between the USPTO and the INPI commenced on January 11, 2016, and will run for a period of two years ending on January 10, 2018, or until each office has accepted 150 applications under the program.

The trial period may be extended if necessary to adequately assess the feasibility of the PPH program. Both offices will evaluate the PPH pilot program at the end of the trial period or after all the applications accepted into the program have been processed. Both offices continually will monitor progress of the PPH pilot program and also may evaluate interim results of the pilot program at any time during the trial period to determine whether and how the pilot program should be modified. The offices also may terminate the PPH pilot program early if the volume of participation exceeds a manageable level, or for any other reason. Notice will be published if the PPH pilot program will be terminated. Unless the INPI becomes a Global PPH participating office, any extension or termination of the Global/IP5 PPH program will have no effect on this PPH pilot program.