On 1 April 2016, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Viet Nam and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) jointly launched the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program. This is NOIP’s first ever PPH Pilot Program ever with another IP Office.  

 

Under the PPH Pilot Program, a patent application filed with JPO (previously filed with NOIP) falls under one of the following: 

(i)  an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to the NOIP application(s) (examples are provided in ANNEX, figure A, B, C, F, G  and H of the Procedures to file a request to JPO )  (English version  / Vietnamese version ) or  

(ii) a PCT national phase application without priority claim (examples are provided in ANNEX, figure I of the Procedures to file a request to JPO), or 

(iii) an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to the PCT application(s) without priority claim (examples are provided in ANNEX, figure J, K and L of the Procedures to file a request to JPO); 

and satisfies other requirements stated in the Procedures to file a request to JPO, applicants can request JPO to conduct accelerated examination by a prescribed procedure including submission of relevant documents. 

Sample of PPH request to JPO . 

On the other way around, a patent application filed with NOIP (previously filed with JPO) falls under one of the following: 

(i) an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to the JPO application(s) (examples are provided in ANNEX , Figure A, B, C, F, G and H of the Procedures to file a request to NOIP), (English version  / Vietnamese version ), or  

(ii) a PCT national phase application without priority claim filed at JPO as receiving office (the application number begins with PCT/JP, hereafter referred to as PCT/JP application) (examples are provided in ANNEX , Figure I of the Procedures to file a request to NOIP), or 

(iii) an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to the PCT/JP application(s) referred to in (ii) above (examples are provided in ANNEX , Figure J, K and L ofthe Procedures to file a request to NOIP) 

and satisfies other requirements stated in the Procedures to file a request to NOIP, applicants can request NOIP to conduct accelerated examination by a prescribed procedure including submission of relevant documents. 

Sample of PPH request to NOIP . 

The PPH Pilot Program will be jointly operated by NOIP and JPO in three years. It will end on 31/3/2019./. 

International Cooperation Division