The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) have jointly decided to extend their Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program for another three years from January 23, 2024 to January 22, 2027. The established Procedures to file a request to the DPMA for Patent Prosecution Highway ("PPH") Pilot Program between the DPMA and the SIPO remains controlling the pertinent requirements and procedures governing applicants' PPH requests at the two offices.

The extension of the CNIPA-DPMA PPH pilot program will continuously advance China-Germany communication and cooperation in IP, serve both Chinese and German innovators by accelerating the patent examination process and deepen the two offices' cooperation in patent examination.

PPH pilot program is a fast patent examination channel between different countries or regions, with the work sharing between patent examination agencies to speed up the patent examination process. Since the first PPH pilot program launched in November 2011, the CNIPA has established PPH cooperation with patent examination agencies in 32 countries or regions.

CNIPA

January 19th, 2024