Hungarian-Austrian Cooperation on the field of patents
On 7 November 2009 Mr.Miklós Bendzsel, President of the Hungarian Patent Office and Mr. Friedrich Rödler, President of the Austrian Patent Office signed a Memorandum of Understandingon the acceleration of the patent granting procedure. Under the terms of the agreement the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) project is to be launched between the two offices on 4 January 2009.
The PPH project, which was initiated by Japan, is based on bilateral agreements. The importance of the PPH-agreements is shown by the fact that about a dozen IP offices have already established PPH cooperation between them. These offices include the patent offices of the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Denmark, Finland and Austria as well as the European Patent Office.
The project is primarily beneficial to those players operating in the modern, globalised economy who wish to obtain patent protection for a single patent in several countries. The main idea of the PPH-cooperation is that the parties to the agreement mutually recognise and exploit the work that has been carried out by one of the offices concerning a given application, making it possible for those applicants who seek patent protection for the same invention in both countries to obtain the protection faster.
This new agreement is a milestone within the traditionally excellent cooperation between the Austrian Patent Office and the Hungarian Patent Office, besides the PCT cooperation agreement concluded in the autumn of 2008, under which the two offices cooperate in respect of work carried out under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The PPH agreement mutually serves the interests of the national applicants of both countries by a more efficient work-sharing between the two offices, allowing them to conduct the patent granting process faster.
The news on the agreement has also been published by the Austrian Patent Office, which is available in German at the following website:
http://www.patentamt.at/Home/Neues/41001_1.html