Enhanced Cooperation between the ILPO and the USPTO in the Framework of the
PPH
(Communicated by the Justice Ministry Spokesperson's Office)

On July 1st, 2012, the Israel Patent Office (ILPO)
http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJEng/RashamHaptentim
and the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) reinforced their
cooperation under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), following a pilot
program which was initiated on July 2011.

PPH Program
The PPH is a set of initiatives for providing accelerated and improved
patent prosecution procedures by sharing information between patent offices.

A Patent Applicant who has filed an application in both patent offices, may,
under the PPH program, request an accelerated examination in the second
office after receiving a positive search report in the first office, thus,
enabling each participating patent office to benefit from the work
previously done by the other patent office, with the goal of reducing
examination workload.

The Pilot program was scheduled for one year and it was scheduled to end on
June 30th, 2012. At the end of the first year, the Israel Patent Office and
the United States and Trademarks Office have decided to turn it into a
permanent program. Such notice as well as updated instruction of the program
was published on the ILPO website:
http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/05AB4882-7EEF-4EDC-B282-35154ED863E0/36229/Finalpublicnotice.pdf
and on the USPTO's website:
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/pph/pph_il.jsp .

In order to maximize the advantages of the PPH program, it was decided to
expand this cooperation by starting a PCT PPH Pilot, which uses the search
and examinations resulted of the International Searching and Preliminary
Examination Authorities (ISA/IPEA) of each Office. This additional program
became possible after the ILPO started operating as an International
Searching and Preliminary Examination Authority on June 1st, 2012.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT
http://www.wipo.int/pct/en
deals with filing international patent applications, in order to create a
unified system for registering one patent in different states, based on a
single application. As part of the PCT process, the applicant receives an
International Searching and Examination Report from designated ISA/IPEA.

These programs will better serve the needs of the applicants in both the
United States and in Israel as the PPH is an effective tool for streamlining
patent prosecution and improving patent quality.

The PCT PPH Pilot started on August 1st, 2012 and will operate one year. The
pilot can be extended for an additional year, or terminated earlier,
depending on the amount of activity and other variables.

Full requirements for participation in trial program can be found at the
following addresses:
ILPO:
http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/05AB4882-7EEF-4EDC-B282-35154ED863E0/36859/SignedPCTPPHNotice.pdf,
USPTO:
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/notices/pct-pph_il.pdf.