Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Office and eight other patent offices had agreed to implement an enhanced Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program.  The new pilot builds off an enhanced PPH framework that went into effect in July (see "USPTO Expands Patent Prosecution Highway").

The enhanced PPH pilot program implemented last summer has been called PPH MOTTAINAI, for the Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized."  Under the PPH MOTTAINAI pilot program, eight patent offices -- the USPTO, Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), IPAustralia, National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR), Federal Service on Intellectual Property, Patents & Trademarks of Russia (Rospatent), Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), and United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) -- implemented enhanced PPH programs in which the requirements for participation were modified to make the programs easier to use and more widely available to a greater number of applicants.  In particular, participation in the PPH MOTTAINAI program could be requested on the basis of results available on any patent family member from any office participating in the pilot, regardless of whether it was the office where the priority application was filed.  In addition, the enhanced program utilized a new definition of claim correspondence, which the USPTO indicated would make the system more flexible and user-friendly without compromising efficiency or quality.

Under the new version of the PPH MOTTAINAI program, which is being called PPH 2.0, the European Patent Office (EPO) has joined the original MOTTAINAI offices, bringing the total number of participating offices to nine.  The PPH 2,0 program, which commenced on January 29, will run until January 28, 2013 (although the program could be extended for one additional year, if needed, or terminated early if, for example, the volume of participation were to exceed a manageable level).

In order to participate in the PPH 2.0 program in the USPTO, applicants must satisfy the following requirements...

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