Request for accelerated examination of patent applications in Austria

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a very useful option for companies that want to leverage innovation and do business internationally. Industrial property rights protect innovations around the world and are essential for an effective marketing strategy.

The PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) agreement refers to a patent applicant who can use the patentability examination results of the prior examination office (OEE) to apply for accelerated examination of his application at other partner offices. Partner offices can process applications faster by using the work results of prior examiners to improve the quality of examination, so that applicants can benefit from a more efficient and faster patent examination process. Generally speaking, ATPO will issue the first examination opinion within 4.4 months after the PPH request is approved.

Currently, ATPO has signed PPH bilateral agreements with the following IP offices: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China (extended from March 1, 2021), Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Nordic Patent Institute (Denmark, Norway, Iceland), Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the United States, Visegrad Patent Institute (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary) and others.

PPH is also applicable to PCT procedures (PCT-PPH). Therefore, PPH applications can also be supported based on PCT work products (written opinions of the International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority and international search reports).

PPH working principle:

The following requirements must be met to file a PPH request:

• The earlier application and the later application must have a priority link
• One or more claims must have been determined to be patentable by the prior examining office
• All claims in the patent application for which the PPH request is filed must fully correspond to those in the subsequent application.
• The patent application for which the PPH request is filed must not have undergone substantive examination or issued the first examination opinion.

The following documents must be submitted for PPH application:

1. Copies of all notifications from the prior examining office: Applicants can send an email to info@patentamt.at to request ATPO to provide a PPH package
2. Verified copy of the claims
3. Claim correspondence table
4. Copies of relevant documents, such as non-patent literature, etc.