PPH programmes

Recognition by one of the participating Offices, at least one claim as patentable gives the applicant a considerable legal certainty and higher predictability of the examination results at the other participating Office, in comparison to ordinary applications, which are not processed in the frame of PPH Programme. Conducting at one of the participating Offices an examination of the application in respect of which a patent search and substantive examination were in fact conducted already, undoubtedly enhances the quality of examination, since the examiner uses all available additional information, including the search carried out by the other Office, which can often extend to collections of documents available in the working language of the Office (e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean), as well as correspondence between the Office and the applicant in respect of the application filed.

The Office begins substantive examination of applications, for which an accelerated examination was requested in accordance with PPH Programme, earlier than for applications which do not participate in the PPH Programme. Although each Office evaluates the patentability of an invention on the basis of national or regional law applicable at that Office, the Office, taking into account a positive opinion on the patentability of Partner Office, can carry out a shortened examination by reducing the number of actions, including correspondence with the applicant on the patentability, which were discussed in the course of the examination by the other participating Office.