Paris, December 8, 2020 – On November 26, 2020 the heads of the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the French Patent Office (INPI) have signed a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement.
This PPH agreement is part of a larger cooperation between the JPO and the INPI, who have entered into a Memorandum of Cooperation last March. The PPH agreement will enter into force on January 1,2021.
With the new PPH agreement, Japanese applicants will be able to request acceleration of examination in France, for a French patent application claiming the priority of an earlier Japanese patent application, if the claims of the French patent application are similar to the claims of the earlier Japanese patent application which have been considered to be patentable by the JPO.
Conversely, French applicants will be able to request acceleration of examination in Japan, for a Japanese patent application claiming the priority of an earlier French patent application, if the claims of the Japanese patent application are similar to the claims of the earlier French patent application which have been considered to be patentable by the INPI.
This agreement is the first PPH agreement ever signed by the INPI. This reflects the importance of Japanese applicants for the French Patent Office.
With this agreement, Japanese and French applicants will be able to streamline and accelerate prosecution of their patent applications, both in Japan and in France.
This agreement also coincides with major changes in French patent law, with the PACTE law. In particular, since May 22, 2020, the examination of patent applications before the INPI includes substantive examination of inventive step. The Japanese and French patent systems are thus further aligned, and applicants from both countries can take advantage of this for implementing a global patent strategy in Japan and in France.
As always, our Japan Desk remains at your disposal for identifying how you can best take advantage of these recent developments.
