29 May, 2017
As previously reported, the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam began accepting Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) requests for the second year of the PPH pilot program with the Japanese Patent Office on April 3, 2017, and the number of the PPH requests was to be limited to 100. On May 24, 2017, the NOIP reported that the 100th PPH request had been filed.
We have been informed by an officer at the NOIP that no extensions or exceptions are available, and no more PPH requests will be accepted until the third year of the program begins on April 1, 2018. The officer confirmed that the number of PPH requests for the third year will again be limited to 100.
For the first year of the pilot program, the 100 PPH request limit was reached in around four months; for the second year, this limit was reached in less than two months, attesting to the popularity of this program. If you wish to file any PPH requests, please let us know in due course. They should be prepared well in advance and filed in the morning of April 1, 2018.
For further information, please contact:
Thomas J. Treutler, Partner, Tilleke & Gibbins
thomas.t@tilleke.com
