Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH)
Securing your patent rights globally twice as fast for half the price
By using Nordic Patent Institute and the PCT patent system, you can get a much faster, safer and cheaper access to more than 20 countries and jurisdictions, including USA, Japan, Germany, UK and Korea.
Patents internationally
A patent is normally valid for only one country. To gain broader protection you must apply in every country in which you want protection. As a minimum, it is common to extend protection to countries where you intend to sell the product, to where it is manufactured, where your main competitors are located or possibly, where there is a threat of piracy.
A Nordic company will often apply for a patent in approximately 5-7 countries (based on information from Norwegian Industrial Property Office). Obtaining an international patent family of that size will typically cost a few hundred thousand dollars, and it can take many years before these applications are approved in all countries. In addition, slightly different versions of the patent will often be approved in different countries making it harder to keep an overview.
Minimize cost, pendency time and get better overview with Global PPH
Nordic Patent Institute is a member of The Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH), a program which shares search and examination results between offices. This allows applicants in both countries to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. The Global PPH, which includes more than 20 participating offices, provides the option of making a request to any or all of the participating offices based on the same work products. This also includes Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work products from another participating office.
By using Nordic Patent Institute as your local PCT Authority and the Global PPH to secure global patent rights you can:
- Save work and money with fewer office actions that tend to be quite costly when using local counsel.
- Get faster approval/grant, increasing your competitiveness.
- Increase your chance of getting your application approved.
- Get a better overview of your patent family with applications that are similar.
Get your application approved
The probability of getting a PPH application accepted is much greater: 95% grant rate* for PPH applications has been achieved at some national offices, with more than 20% of PPH applications going to grant with just one action** .
Simpler - thus cheaper and faster approval
In all the participating countries, the chances are quite high for a PPH application being accepted on the first attempt, without additional correspondence and work. Under the PPH, the pendency period for the first examination relating to PPH applications can often be reduced from 27 months to less than 3 months in some participating offices.
The pendency times become much shorter for PPH applications:
This also means fewer office actions for PPH applications that can save a considerable amount of local attorney fees.
* Based on figures of PPH between USPTO and JPO
** Figures are for PPH request at USPTO based on JPO as office of first filing