CNIPA has extended the PPH pilot program with both Iceland and Egypt for 5 years each through June 30 2024. The China-Iceland PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2014 and was extended for the first time on July 1, 2016 for a period of three years until June 30, 2019 while the China-Egypt PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2017 for a period of two years until June 30, 2019. While the US has a PPH with Iceland, the US does not have one with Egypt. The US does have a PPH with China via the IP5 PPH.
In order to file a request to participate in PPH in China, an applicant must file the request after publication of the Chinese invention application but before receiving an Office Action. Further, the PPH request should be filed when filing a request for exam, or after the Chinese application has entered into substantive examination (i.e., received a notice of entering substantive examination).
All claims in the Chinese application must sufficiently correspond to the patentable claims in the foreign or the Patent Cooperation Treaty application (i.e., the Chinese claims must be similar in the scope or narrower than the allowed claims). The base application being relied on for the Chinese PCT request must include an indication of patentability of at least one claim in a notice of allowance or an office action, or the PCT application must indicate patentability in a PCT work product.
In addition to a request to participate in the PPH, an applicant must submit (1) Chinese translations of the allowable claims of the relevant base application, (2) list of references cited by the examiner, (3) copies of nonpatent literature references cited by the examiner, if any (4) a claims correspondence table with explanation; and (5) copies of all office actions that are relevant to substantive examination for patentability. The applicant also should submit Chinese translations of all office actions if the documents are not in English.
