Implementation of patent prosecution highway (pph) in colombia. Legal, technical analysis, and initial effects Implementación del procedimiento acelerado de patentes (PPH) en Colombia. Análisis jurídico, técnico y efectos iniciales

Abstract

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) are agreements between industrial property offices that allow an patent application, that has been granted in a first presentation office (OPP, for its initials in Spanish), to be able to follow an accelerated process in the second presentation office (OSP, for its initials in Spanish), achieving with this the recognition of the examination done by the OPP. Colombia signed its first PPH in 2012 and until September 2014 has signed a total of three agreements, with the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO), Spain (OEPM) and Japan (JPO). The main goal of this paper is to contribute academically with the understanding of this mechanism, its advantages and disadvantages, based on the legal and technical analysis, and case studies. The analysis shows that the PPH reduces significantly the granting times of patents. However, in practice the advantage – at this time - is mainly for foreign applicants, there is no evidence of duplicity in the patentability examination due to the difference in the standards of each country, instead, it was observed the introduction of different criteria and patentability alignments from those expressed in the current normativity applicable in Colombia.