Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) (Formerly: Hungarian Patent Office, HPO) has launched Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) cooperative projects with the patent offices of Japan, Austria, Finland and the United States. PPH agreements enable patent offices to exchange information and speed up the processing of patent applications. Through these agreements, a Hungarian patent applicant can request accelerated processing at the other office, if the claims in a corresponding application filed with that office have already been allowed by the HIPO.

The pilot agreement with the JPO entered into force on 3 August 2009. PPH co-operation with the APO and NBPR started on 4 January 2010. The starting date of the PPH pilot project between the HIPO and the USPTO is 1 July 2010.

Countries participating in the PPH co-operation (March 2012)

Accelerated PPH processing at the HIPO (Hungarian Intellectual Property Office)

Request for accelerated PPH processing at the HIPO can be made by following these guidelines:
PPH guideline for AT Filers
<English, PDF>

PPH guideline for FI Filers
<English, PDF>

PPH guideline for JP Filers
<English, PDF>

PPH guideline for US Filers
<English, PDF>

Here are the PPH Request Forms which can be sent to HIPO on paper:
For AT Filers Request form
<RTF format>
<PDF format>

For FI Filers Request form
<RTF format>
<PDF format>

For JP Filers Request form
<RTF format>
<PDF format>

For US Filers Request form
<RTF format >
<PDF format >

Accelerated PPH processing at the APO

Request for accelerated PPH processing at the APO can be made by following these guidelines:
APO guideline for HU Filers
<English, PDF>
Request form on APO's web page

Accelerated PPH processing at the NBPR

Request for accelerated PPH processing at the NBPR can be made by following these guidelines:
NBPR guideline for HU Filers
<English, PDF>
NBPR request for HU filers
<English, RTF>
<English, PDF>
More information on NBPR's web page

Accelerated PPH processing at the JPO

Request for accelerated PPH processing at the JPO can be made by following these guidelines:
JPO guideline for HU Filers
<English, PDF>
More information on JPO's web page

Accelerated PPH processing at the USPTO

Request for accelerated PPH processing at the USPTO can be made by following this guideline:
USPTO guideline for HU Filers
<English, PDF>
More information on USPTO web page

What is PPH?

The PPH is a bilateral agreement between two national intellectual property offices. It provides applicants with fast-track patent examination procedures to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently. It will also permit each office to make use of the work previously done by the other office and reduce duplication. Thus, the PPH initiative will reduce the examination workload and improve patent quality.

PPH is a voluntary option for patent applicants. It is noted that the intellectual property office of second filing is not obliged to accept the opinion of the intellectual property office of first filing and that the intellectual property office of second filing is always solely responsible for its decisions. At the HIPO substantive examination is conducted based on the Hungarian patent law and examination guidelines.

Background

In the modern global economy many companies and some individual applicants have a growing need to acquire patent protection for the same invention in a number of different countries. This may require separate patent applications be filed with in many different national intellectual property offices, each considering the patent application independently of the others.

With this in mind, the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office has been investigating the possibility of international collaboration with other national intellectual property offices to enable national offices to exploit relevant work already conducted by another national office.

At present, the following patent offices have established one or more PPH agreements: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, the European Patent Office, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Russia, Singapore, UK, and USA.

Further Information

Szabolcs Farkas, Head of Patent Department
Phone: (+361) 474 5902
(+361) 311 0883
Fax:       (+361) 474 5850
E-mail:   

József Kürtös, Deputy-head of Patent Department
Phone: (+361) 474 5871
E-mail: