New Patent Prosecution Highway Program Started Between Chile And Canada

On January 6, 2017, a new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program between the National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile (INAPI) and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) commenced.

The PPH program 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 a faster, more efficient manner. The PPH program also allows the offices to benefit from work previously done by each other's patent offices, reducing examination workload.

Requests for accelerated examination under this PPH program can be made based on either national work products or Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work products by the INAPI and CIPO, such as the Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority (WO-ISA), the Written Opinion of the International Preliminary Examination Authority (WO-IPEA) and the International Preliminary Report on Patentability (IPRP).