Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) in Korea
                                             October 2009

  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the JPO (April 1, 2007)
  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the USPTO (January 28, 2008)
  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the DKPTO (March 1, 2009)
  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the UK-IPO (October 1, 2009)
  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the CIPO (October 1, 2009)
  Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the ROSPATENT (November 2, 2009)
  
- Objective of Patent Prosecution Highway

   The basic concept of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is as follows: where the office of first filing (OFF) has assessed the patentability of a patent application, the office of second filing (OSF) ensures that the applicant is entitled to benefit from an accelerated examination for the corresponding application, provided that certain conditions are met. Those conditions include sufficient correspondence in the claims of the two applications and the search and examination results of the OFF being made available to the OSF. 
 The PPH permits each office to benefit from the work previously done by the other office thereby reducing the workload and improving the patent quality, and enables applicants whose claims are determined to be allowable or patentable in the OFF to have the corresponding application filed in the OSF advanced out of turn for examination.

- Outline of requirements and documents to be submitted for participation in Patent Prosecution Highway

- Outline of requirements
① An application in the OSF validly claims priority to an application in the OFF,
② An application in the OFF has at least one claim which is determined to be patentable/allowable and
③ All claims in the OSF application sufficiently correspond to (are practically same as) claims which are determined to be patentable/allowable in the OFF
④ An application in the OSF has not begun yet (excluded when the KIPO is OSF)

- Outline of documents to be submitted
① Copy and translation of claims which are determined to be patentable in the OFF
② Copies and translations of all office actions in the OFF
③ Copies of references cited by the OFF’s examiner
④ A Claims correspondence table
        
※   Please see details about requirements and documents (request form, kind of documents, conditions for exemption of submitting documents) to be submitted in each office at web-site above or official web-site of each office.

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO (Korea) and the JPO (Japan)
  
  The KIPO and the JPO started Patent Prosecution Highway on April 1, 2007 according to decision at Commissioners' meeting held in November, 2005.
 The KIPO and the JPO agreed to include a PCT application without priority claim in the eligible applications for the PPH between the KIPO and the JPO.
 This agreement came into force on July 1, 2009.

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the USPTO (USA)
  
  The KIPO and the USPTO agreed at Commissioners' meeting held in September 2007 to start Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program in January, 2008.  The Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program commenced on January 28, 2008 for a period of one year ending on January 28, 2009. The KIPO and the USPTO agreed to the full implementation of the PPH between the KIPO and the USPTO from January 29, 2009 under the same conditions as the pilot program.

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the DKPTO (Denmark)
  
  The KIPO and the DKPTO started Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program on March 1, 2009 according to decision at Commissioners' meeting held in September, 2008. 

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the UK-IPO (UK)
  
  The KIPO and the UK-IPO started Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program on October 1, 2009 according to decision at Commissioners' meeting held in June, 2009. 

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the CIPO (Canada)
  
  The KIPO and the CIPO started Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program on October 1, 2009 according to decision at Commissioners' meeting held in September, 2009. 

- Patent Prosecution Highway between the KIPO and the ROSPATENT (Russia)

 The KIPO and the ROSPATENT start Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program on November 2, 2009 for one year.