According to a joint statement on Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) by China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), the Sino-German PPH pilot program was launched on January 23, 2012. This is a major achievement made by the patent adminstrations of China and Germany.

The PPH was established to enable an applicant whose at least one claim is patentable in the Office of First Filing (OFF) to have the corresponding application filed in the Office of Second Filing (OSF) advanced out of turn for examination while at the same time allowing the OSF to exploit the work results of the OFF.

The Sino-German PPH pilot program only involves the regular PPH, excluding PCT-PPH. An applicant may file a PPH request to SIPO or DPMA in accordance with the procedures under the Sino-German PPH pilot program. This pilot program will run for two years and ends on January 22, 2014.

The launch of the Sino-German PPH pilot program will play a positive role in promoting the implemenation of China's intellectual property strategy and supporting such market entities as enterprises to obtain patent rights as soon as possible.

For those who file PPH requests to SIPO, please visit http://www.sipo.gov.cn/ztzl/zlscgslpphzl/ for relevant information, while for those making PPH requests to DPMA, please go to https://www.dpma.de/english/index.html for relevant requirements.