THE PPH AGREEMENT BETWEEN EPO AND CIPO WILL BE EXTENDED INDEFINITELY

The current PPH agreement between EPO and CIPO will expire on January 5, 2021 according to the CIPO website. The offices have agreed to extend the agreement indefinitely starting on January 6, 2021.

The agreement allows accelerated examination based on PCT or national work product. This could be beneficial to anyone who has corresponding patent applications in Canada and EPO.

This extension will particularly benefit applicants requesting PPH for patent applications in Canada because CIPO often allows patent applications based on PPH without office actions within a few months after the request for examination. Because an applicant is allowed to request examination within 4 years after the application date, the applicant can wait to request examination and PPH until the application is allowed by EPO within the 4 years.

On the other hand, our experience indicates that the PPH process is not particularly helpful at EPO.

At the moment, CIPO website has not been updated to reflect this extension. Please check https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2020/12/a137.html for details.