Accelerated Examination of Patent Applications in Portugal – PPH/GPPH

When applying for a patent in Portugal, you can use PPH or Global PPH to speed up the examination process.

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a simple and free way to speed up the examination process of patent applications by sharing information and work between INPI and other partner institutions in the PPH program. In practice, this mechanism operates as an examination cooperation program between two patent offices, allowing applicants to request accelerated examination at the second examination office in accordance with a simple procedure if their application is accepted or deemed patentable by the first examination office. When the previous examination office (OEE) determines that one or more claims of a patent application are allowable, the subsequent examination office (OLE) ensures that the applicant is entitled to priority processing of the corresponding application.

The PPH has benefits for both applicants and relevant industrial property offices:

• For users: Through the PPH, domestic companies, universities and inventors can obtain a "fast track" for the internationalization of patent applications in regions that have signed agreements with Portugal, thereby increasing their patent portfolios worldwide
• For patent offices: PPH involves task sharing between two institutions, which can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with searching for patent applications. In addition, the second institution can refer to the search results and examination methods of the first institution, improving the quality of application examination.
• The PPH allows for expedited decisions on the patentability of patent applications; enables the sharing of information and work among participating patent offices; reduces the administrative and technical workload associated with patent examination; improves patent quality; and enables the coordination of examination procedures among the offices.

There are three conditions required to file a PPH request:

• The PPH application filed with INPI needs to claim a valid priority, or correspond to the national phase of the PCT application (international route application), or correspond to a divisional application of a PPH project partner institution.
• At least one or more of the corresponding applications of the partner institutions in the PPH project are considered to be authorizable or have the intention to authorize
• All claims in the PPH application filed with the INPI must correspond to one or more allowable claims in the earlier examining office.

Global PPH or bilateral PPH?

• The PPH allows INPI applicants to request accelerated examination from other institutions participating in the PPH program if the claims of the application have been deemed allowable or intended to be allowed by INPI.
• Similarly, applicants from other countries that have signed PPH agreements with Portugal can request accelerated examination at the INPI for applications for which they have received a positive patentability report.
• Currently, INPI has signed global PPH agreements with USPTO, JPO and other countries. If the claims contained in the patent application have been deemed patentable or have been granted by any other competent authority participating in the pilot project, Global PPH allows patent applicants to request a fast-track examination at any participating competent authority.
• Portugal currently also has bilateral agreements with CNIPA and IMPI Mexico for accelerated patent prosecution (PPH)

PPH submission documents:

• Copies of documents issued by the partner institutions related to the PPH program for analyzing the patentability of the application
• Copies of claims determined to be patentable by the partner institution
• Comparison table between the claims in the application filed with INPI and the claims in the corresponding application filed with the partner institutions
• Copies of references cited by examiners from the cooperating institution