The PPH pilot program between the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) which commenced on 01 October 2014 for a trial period of 03 years was extended for a second trial period of 03 years. After a successful trial period of 06 years, MyIPO and JPO have agreed to fully implement the PPH program from 01 October 2020. The PPH program between MyIPO and JPO will be available on a permanent basis and it involves no change in the procedures or requirements.

This PPH program has proven to be a popular program adopted by patent applicants who possess an allowed or granted corresponding Japanese patent application or patent or a PCT application examined by JPO. An examination process in MyIPO which normally takes 02 to 03 years to complete is significantly reduced to 08 to 12 months by adopting the PPH program.

Under this PPH program, an applicant that has a pending Malaysian patent application may request accelerated examination by MyIPO based on favourable examination by the JPO of a corresponding Japanese or PCT application (hereafter collectively called the “reference application”). In order to qualify for processing under the PPH program, the following conditions must be met:

• The Malaysian application and the reference application must correspond – this is defined in terms of a priority relationship between the applications or a common PCT application.
• One or more claims of the Japanese or PCT application have been indicated as allowable by the JPO.
• The claims presented in the Malaysian application for examination under the PPH sufficiently correspond to such allowed claims.
• A request for normal examination has been filed with MyIPO (either previously, or with the PPH request).
• If the examination request was filed previously, MyIPO has not yet started the examination.

It is good to know that MyIPO also has PPH agreements with two other foreign patent offices, namely, the the European Patent Office (EPO) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), formerly known as the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO).

We invite you to click on the following links below to read more about the PPH agreements between MyIPO with European Patent Office (EPO) and China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

Link : EPO-PPH program
Link : CNIPA-PPH program
Link : PPH programs in Malaysia

Under these available PPH programs, a patent applicant may request accelerated examination by MyIPO based on favourable examination results of a corresponding JP, EP, CN or PCT application (reference application) by the JPO, EPO or CNIPA (first Patent Office).