EPO and Peru IP Office make their PPH fast-track programme permanent

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme between the European Patent Office (EPO) and the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property Protection of Peru (INDECOPI) became permanent on 2 January 2023. This follows the successful completion of a pilot programme launched on 1 January 2020. The current conditions and requirements for participation will continue to apply.

The PPH enables an applicant whose claims have been determined to be patentable/allowable to have a corresponding application filed with a PPH partner office processed in an accelerated manner while at the same time allowing the offices involved to exploit available work results.

Under the PPH programme a PPH request can be based either on the latest PCT work product (written opinion of the ISA (WO-ISA) or international preliminary examination report (IPER)) established by the EPO as ISA or IPEA, or on the national work product established during the processing of a national application or a PCT application that has entered the national phase before the EPO or INDECOPI, where this work product determines one or more claims to be patentable/allowable.