Updates On Patent Prosecution Highway

The USPTO has announced that:

• The USPTO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) have now implemented the patent prosecution highway (PPH) program on a full time basis (link)
• The USPTO and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) have started a trial cooperation initiative for the patent prosecution highway (PPH) program. (link)

The purpose of the PPH program is, inter alia, to "improve quality and pendency...".

Many patent offices are now participating (either at a trial level or at a fully implemented level) to the PPH initiative such as USPTO, CIPO, KIPO, EPO, UKPTO, JPO, IPAU, DKPTO and GPTO.