On 6 July 2017, New Zealand joined the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH) pilot programme. Under the GPPH, an applicant can speed up examination of its application in a GPPH-participating country if claims of a corresponding application have been allowed in another GPPH-participating country.
Over 20 countries are now in the GPPH including Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the USA.
In order to expedite examination under the GPPH in New Zealand based on another application in a GPPH-participating country:
- the applications in both countries must share the same earliest filing date or priority date;
- at least one claim in the other application must have been found to be patentable in the GPPH-participating country;
- the claims of the New Zealand application must sufficiently correspond to (be identical, similar, or narrower than) the patentable claim(s).
Expediting examination under the GPPH does not guarantee acceptance. While expediting examination of an application would result in the Patent Office of the GPPH-participating country examining the application sooner, the Patent Office would still examine the application in accordance with its local patent law.
The addition of New Zealand to the GPPH allows patent attorneys to expedite and minimise the cost of multi-national patent examination.
Further reading:
Nigel Pereira – Principal
Network & Telecommunications Engineer and Patent Attorney
WADESON
Level 27, 101 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
+61 3 9819 3808
