The aim is to enable applicants in this strategically important sector to benefit more quickly from the advantages associated with a granted patent, whether in terms of valuation, litigation actions, or use as a basis for requesting other procedural accelerations.
However, there is no harmonization at the international level, each program having its own specific features depending on local practices.
Many countries— including Japan, South Korea, Canada, Israel, Brazil, Australia, and Taiwan - offer applicants worldwide the possibility to accelerate the grant procedure for their Greentech-related patent applications, for a modest official fee (around €150).
In Europe, there is no examination acceleration program specifically dedicated to Greentech, and the United States definitively ended its “Climate Change Mitigation” pilot program in April 2025. In these countries, applicants must therefore rely on non-specific acceleration programs (“PACE” program at the EPO, or “Fast Track 1” at the USPTO). As for China, the currently available acceleration routes are restricted to domestic Greentech players only.
Countries offering Greentech-dedicated acceleration programs
These acceleration programs share a common eligibility criterion: the applicant must demonstrate that the invention belongs to the field of “green technologies,” although the definition of this “field” remains specific to each office.
To do so, applicants can rely on the “Green Inventory” introduced by WIPO in 2010, a tool that groups together the international patent classifications (IPC) covering Greentech. In practice, these technologies span many technical fields (such as alternative energy production, transport, waste management, and agriculture) and are therefore distributed across a wide range of technological classes. Regimbeau experts can of course advise you on this matter.
In South Korea, applications are even assigned a special “Green Technology” code, a classification structured around carbon neutrality and intended to systematically organize patent data in this field. Similarly, a Y02 classification dedicated to “technologies or applications for mitigation of or adaptation to climate change” was introduced in 2015 within the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system (Europe-USA bilateral system). Beyond their usefulness for examiners’ search work, these specific classifications serve a public-interest purpose, particularly in facilitating access to green technologies for scientists and engineers and supporting their development.
Reports from our network of agents abroad indicates that, provided eligibility criteria are met, acceptance rates into these examination acceleration programs are very high. For example, the Brazilian office reports that 78% of applicants who requested the program between 2012 and 2025 were admitted.
As their name suggests, these programs accelerate the examination procedure, thereby reducing the time between filing the patent application and the issuance of a final decision, notably by shortening the time to the first office action. Our colleagues’ feedback, for which we are most grateful, indicates that the acceleration is indeed substantial.
However, a markedly shorter examination timeline entails strict diligence obligations: in most offices, requesting an extension to respond to an office action leads to exclusion from the program. Moreover, while the procedure is expedited, the quality of examination is not compromised, and the final decision may still be a refusal or a grant.
Japan, South Korea, Canada, Israel, Brazil, Australia, and Taiwan, as well as the United Kingdom and Thailand, offer European Greentech players the possibility to accelerate the examination of their patent applications. However, relatively few applicants have made use of these mechanisms. Is this due to a lack of awareness of existing programs? Or because eligibility criteria are not harmonized from one office to another? In any event, it should be recalled that accelerating the examination of a patent application is part of an overall strategy for protecting an invention, which may include the use of non-specific acceleration programs such as the PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway).
At REGIMBEAU, our experts assist you in designing and executing a tailored strategy to protect and fully leverage your Greentech inventions.
On a final note, an original initiative by WIPO to promote your Greentech patents, particularly after accelerated grant: the WIPO GREEN platform. This is defined as a “marketplace” for green technologies and offers patent applicants in this sector the opportunity to gain visibility, find investors, and establish partnerships by listing a collection of patented technologies at different stages of development, from prototypes to market-ready solutions, as well as the needs of potential clients.
