USPTO, JPO expedite patent examination

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office announced Wednesday a trial initiative called the Patent Prosecution Highway.

The program, which will begin July 3, hopes to expedite the patent-examination procedure already available in both offices to allow applicants from both countries to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently, the USPTO said.

It will also permit each office to benefit from work previously done by the other office.

"The Patent Prosecution Highway is an important element in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry/U.S. Department of Commerce Initiative, which was issued on March 30, 2006 by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai," added Makoto Nakajima, commissioner of the Japan Patent Office. "The Patent Prosecution Highway is a significant first step in the cooperative efforts to support U.S. and Japanese industries for their global patent-obtaining activities."

The pilot will go on for a year until July 3, 2007, but could be extended for up to a year or terminated earlier.

"This pilot project represents an important first step toward our goal of reducing duplication of searching through work-sharing," said Jon Dudas, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO. "As the USPTO and patent offices throughout the world deal with an ever-increasing workload, we must find ways to streamline processing and avoid redundancy through cooperative efforts such as the Patent Prosecution Highway. We look forward to a successful trial run of this program."