The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines now accepts PPH requests under the IPOPHL-KIPO PPH Pilot Programme. Applicants with corresponding patent applications in IPOPHL and KIPO can now file a request for preferential examination under this Programme in either offices following a prescribed procedure and with submission of relevant documents on the application. This programme is available for applications filed under the Paris Route and PCT route. 

The PPH Programme is part of a global effort to initiate work-sharing and reduce redundancy of work in IP offices, and is now being participated by 33 countries that includes modern IP offices of more advanced countries such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office and Japan Patent Office. PPH provides a framework whereby patent applicants whose applications have been determined allowable by a patent office are entitled to request, through a simple procedure, an accelerated or preferential examination of the corresponding applications in another patent office based on the issued examination results. Applicants can benefit from faster prosecution of their applications and acquisition of higher quality patent rights.

It may be recalled that IPOPHL through its then Director General, Atty. Ricardo Blancaflor, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KIPO Commissioner Kim Young-minin Manila, Philippines, on April 9, 2014 for the implementation of a IPOPHL-KIPO PPH Pilot Programme.  Both offices agreed to implement the pilot program for an initial period of two years, starting on 1 May 2015 up to 30 April 2017, subject for review and renewal as will be agreed upon by both IP offices.