The EPO and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will launch a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme on 1 August 2026. Through the programme, applicants will be able to use the results from patent prosecution at one office to expedite processing at the other.

The new bilateral PPH pilot programme will run for an indefinite period and operate alongside the existing IP5 PPH framework, under the same conditions. Using the PPH at the EPO incurs no additional fees beyond the regular procedural fees.

Patent applicants worldwide benefit from the PPH programme. It allows participating patent offices to share information on parallel patent applications relating to the same invention as they are being handled in different territories. This reduces duplication of effort, enhances efficiency and accelerates patent processing.

The EPO's expanding PPH portfolio

The EPO has PPH programmes currently in force with seventeen institutions, including:

• the IP5 offices, namely the world's five largest IP offices, comprising the EPO, the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

• the national IP offices of Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, and Singapore

(Further information: the EPO-CNIPA PPH programme based on PCT and national work products, the EPO's PPH programmes, PPH FAQs, CNIPA's webpage on the PPH, how to accelerate your patent application at the EPO, and the EPO-CNIPA PCT ISA pilot programme – the relevant links are available on the original page.)

Source: European Patent Office (EPO), original release date: 2026-07-06, original link: https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/news/faster-patent-processing-applicants-epo-and-cnipa