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Efforts to further improve the Patent Prosecution Highway
By Ferraiuoli LLC
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) intend to further improve their Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs.The PPH is a fast-track examination framework that enables users to make a simple request to accelerate examination of a patent application pending at a second office (office of later examination) when a corresponding application has been found allowable/patentable by a first office (office of earlier examination).
In order to further improve the user experience under the PPH, the two Offices each set a target deadline for issuing office actions for PPH applications and strive to meet the target as they examine each application, thus making it easier for users to predict the timing of examination.
More specifically, to ensure that the original goals of the PPH are achieved, both Offices set the targets below for the extent to which examination is accelerated under the program, i.e. time taken to issue an office action under the PPH after the examiner can start examination upon a PPH request or the applicant’s response to an office action.
As the original initiators of the innovative PPH scheme, and with almost 30% of all PPH applications in the world having been filed with the JPO or the USPTO in 2020, the two Offices will continue to lead efforts to promote and further improve the PPH.
This improvement to the Offices’ already successful PPH programs took effect 01 January 2022 and will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Ferraiuoli LLC
Ferraiuoli LLC (FLLC) was founded in 2003 by the late Blas Ferraiuoli-Martínez, Eugenio Torres-Oyola and María Marchand-Sánchez. This group was then joined in 2004 by Fernando J. Rovira-Rullán, thus forming the founding core of FLLC. FLLC has grown exponentially since its founding from a law firm with three attorneys and a support staff of three to its current size of 54 attorneys with a support staff of 38. Also, FLLC has grown from initially being known as an intellectual property and corporate law boutique law firm to a multiservice law firm that handles most matters relevant to a business while continuing to earn praise for its leading intellectual property and corporate practices.
FLLC has been ranked as a leading law firm in Puerto Rico by the professional publication Chambers Latin America in intellectual property, corporate, bankruptcy, labor & employment, real estate, and tax law. Moreover, 17 FLLC partners have been ranked as leaders in their field by the same publication. 4 FLLC partners are ranked as leaders in Intellectual Property, no other firm has more than 2. This recognition in such a short period of time is a tribute to FLLC’s business model.
FLLC prides itself in doing its work faster and more cost-efficiently yet with the same quality as that of its main competitors. The founding name partners are available at all times to attend to client matters. Their work ethic sets the tone for the rest of the firm. FLLC’s founders’ goal has been steady from the outset: become one of the premier multiservice law firms in Puerto Rico.
