The Israeli and US Patent offices have announced a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot to begin July 1, 2011 and end June 30st, 2012. The PPH provides that the office of the second filing may use the results of search and examination of the national filing in the office of the first filing for a corresponding patent application. Under the agreement between the Israeli Patent Authority (ILPO) and the USPTO, the ILPO will handle Paris priority applications as an office of second filing and the USPTO will handle Paris priority as well as PCT national phase patent applications.
The Israeli Patent Office published the requirements for entering into the PPH. These include: a request for accelerating examination using a written request and a PPH request form; and the payment of the prescribed fees.
There are five requirements for entering the accelerated examination under the US-Israel PPH:
1. The Israeli patent application claims a Paris Convention priority from one or more US filed patent applications, or divisionals thereof;
2. at least one of the US priority applications comprise one or more claims for which a notice of allowance was issued;
3. the claims of the examined application (originally filed or later amended) must be compatible with the claims for which the USPTO issued a Notice of Allowance; compatible means having the same or similar scope;
4. the prescribed fee for accelerated examination was paid; and
5. the examination of the patent application in Israel has not yet begun when the PPH application was filed.
For more information please see the USPTO PPH Web Site and the Israeli Patent Office PPH Web Site.