The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China and its Japanese counterpart entered into an agreement on October 17th to establish a patent prosecution highway (PPH), which will greatly reduce the patent prosecution period for applicants in both countries.

China and Japan establish a PPH to shorten patent prosecution period

The Sino-Japan agreement went into effect starting November, 2011. In the past, it took an average of 2 to 3 years to prosecute each patent application filed by Japanese enterprises in China. From here forward, that time is expected to be cut in half, with an estimated prosecution time to half a year, facilitating Japanese enterprises to play a part in Chinese markets.

It is the first time for China to sign such a deal with a foreign country. But Japan has signed 16 PPH agreements with other countries and regions including Europe and America.

According to the agreement, for a patent application recognized by one party, the other party merely needs to save the file for approval, which simplifies the examination procedures.