Patent Prosecution Highway is now present in numerous patent offices around the world with the aim of accelerating examination of patent applications.

In this regard, the Colombian Patent Office (CPO) currently has a PPH program with several Patent Offices such as EPO, USPTO, CIPO, among many others. This program allows applicants with patent applications under prosecution in Colombia to have their inventions fast tracked based on a favorable decision of any counterpart application (office of first filing OFF) that share the same priority of the CO case and whose patent office has a PPH program with the CPO. 

In some cases, in addition to the fast tracking of the case, patent applications are granted directly through the PPH program when no additional prior art is found. PPH request must be filed long with the request for examination which is due within 6 months following the publication date. 

In order to participate in the PPH program, copy of the office actions and notice of allowance of the OFF must be filed with the Colombian Patent Office. The claims on file in Colombia must sufficiently correspond to the granted claims of the OFF. 

This means that the claims pending in Colombia must have the same, similar or a narrower scope than those granted in the OFF. For instance, a favorable decision on a product claim in the counterpart application cannot be extended to a process claim in Colombia and therefore it will not be considered under the PPH program. Furthermore, for divisional applications, a PPH request must be filed independently.
On the other hand, it is also important to highlight that if the claims granted in the OFF are excluded from patentability in Colombia such us methods of treatment, uses, second uses, diagnostic methods, plants, computer programs and software as such; and methods for presenting information, etc., the PPH request will be rejected.

Finally, if the CPO finds that the patentability requirements are not met (novelty and/or inventive step) as a result of additional prior art to that found in the patentability examination carried out in the OFF, it will issue an office action under regular examination.

In consequence, PPH presents itself as an additional strategy to take advantage of the positive examination results from counterpart applications. We invite you to make use of the PPH to have your patent application in Colombia fast tracked.