EPO and CNIPA announce Patent Prosecution Highway agreement

EPO and CNIPA announce Patent Prosecution Highway agreement

The European Patent Office (EPO) and China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) have announced a new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme that is due to start on 1 August 2026.

The PPH programme allows applicants to fast track their patent applications where they already have a positive opinion on a corresponding application in another jurisdiction. It means that participating offices can make use of work already carried out on a corresponding application relating to the same invention that is being examined in other territories. The new agreement between the EPO and CNIPA runs alongside the existing IP5 PPH framework (which involves the world’s five largest IP offices – the EPO, the Japan Patent Office, The Korean Ministry of Intellectual Property, the CNIPA and the United States Patent and Trademark Office). The new agreement between the EPO and CNIPA will run for an indefinite period and hopefully is the start of enhanced cooperation between the two offices.

To qualify for the PPH programme, a European application must:

  • Have the same earliest date (i.e. priority or filing date) as the corresponding national or PCT application filed with CNIPA;
  • The corresponding application must have at least one claim indicated by CNIPA to be allowable;
  •  All claims in the European application must sufficiently correspond with those of the corresponding application at the CNIPA. This means that claims must have the same, a similar or a narrower scope;
  • Substantive examination of the European application must not have begun.

Requesting that an application be considered under the PPH programme at the EPO can be beneficial to applicants as it provides accelerated processing and re-use of work carried out by another patent office with no official fee to be paid. Although the PPH involves additional costs when it is requested, it can reduce the number of office actions required to reach grant, therefore reducing the overall cost to get a European patent granted.

The PPH has advantages over other mechanisms available to accelerate prosecution at the EPO. The use of the PACE programme to accelerate prosecution for example is now only available during examination whereas the PPH can be used at the European search stage. Other requirements must also be met for an application to remain in the PACE programme. These include not asking for any extensions of time and paying renewal fees within the basic time limit. This can make the PPH an attractive alternative to PACE.

One potential drawback of using the PPH programme is the need for correspondence between the claims of the European application and those allowed elsewhere and the risk of an added matter objection. The requirements for basis for amendments can differ between jurisdictions – an allowable amendment made in a corresponding application can run into problems at the EPO where added matter is examined strictly.

Other methods of accelerating prosecution at the EPO are available and can be used as an alternative to the PPH. Early processing of an application entering the European regional phase can be requested if the 31-month deadline is still some way off. It is also possible to waive the right to make voluntary amendments to the claims once the European regional phase has been entered. This will ensure that the application moves on to European search stage straight way rather than waiting for the deadline to make voluntary amendments to pass.

If you would like any more information about the use of the PPH at the EPO please contact the author or another member of the patent team.