Visit of the Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office of China to the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office

Mr Shen Changyu, Commissioner of SIPO and Mr Miklós Bendzsel, President of HIPO

On 12 October 2015 the Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) and his delegation visited the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO). On the occasion of the meeting – in addition to the discussion of the issues related to intellectual property and the exchange of experiences – a bilateral agreement on the acceleration of granting patents was signed by Mr Shen Changyu, Commissioner of SIPO and Mr Miklós Bendzsel, President of HIPO. On the basis of the agreement the pilot project called Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) will start between the two offices on 1 March 2016.

The point of the PPH agreement is that the offices mutually acknowledge and use the work related to a patent that has already been fulfilled by the other office, therefore allowing the quicker acquisition of the patent for the applicants requesting protection for the same invention in both countries. So the project is advantageous mainly for those who wish to acquire protection for the same invention in several countries in the modern, globalised economic environment.

Hungary also participates in the Global PPH pilot project, in which the acceleration of patent granting procedures can be requested in the framework of multilateral agreement at the following offices:

Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia), Patent Office of Austria (APO), Intellectual Property Office of Canada (CIPO), Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO), Finnish Patent and Registration Office (NBPR), Israel Patent Office (ILPO), Icelandic Patent Office (IPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), Nordic Patent Institute (NPI), Norwegian Intellectual Property Office (NIPO), National Institute of Industrial Property of Portugal (INPI), Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the Russian Federation (ROSPATENT), Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV), Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (UKIPO), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and Estonian Patent Office (EPA).