A new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project between the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) became operational on September 1, 2013.

The two-year pilot will help Canadian and Chinese applicants gain patents more efficiently and will also allow CIPO and SIPO to benefit from work previously done by the other’s patent office, which decreases examination workload and increases patent quality.

CIPO will continue to process requests for advanced prosecution free of charge during the pilot, while normal fees for examination request continue to be applied, the organization said. It also maintains an agreement with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and eight other pilot projects with the patent offices of Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Spain and the United Kingdom.