Along with 12 other countries, Australia started a Global Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot on January 6, 2014, to provide applicants a unified framework to fast track applications at participating IP offices.

The pilot works is expected to be more efficient than the previous PPH system by replacing multiple bilateral arrangements with only one arrangement to enhance work-sharing among participating offices and user-friendliness for applicants across jurisdictions.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office and IP Australia have been participating in a bilateral PPH pilot programme since 2008. The number of bilateral arrangements worldwide has now grown to a significant number, which makes the maintenance of these arrangements and use by applicants difficult.

To tackle that problem, the participating offices have identified a common set of PPH principles and a framework to serve as a basis for the global arrangement, which ultimately give birth to the pilot.

The pilot will include work done by the participating countries both in the national context and context of the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

All participating offices will monitor the progress to determine if and how the programme should be fully implemented.