Patent Prosecution Highway(PPH) is a mechanism to facilitate expedited examination of applicants. New Zealand has established PPH cooperation with most major economies. And the PPH request is only applicable to patent application in New Zealand.

PPH has two main advantages. For one thing, the PPH application will greatly shorten the pending period for the patent to be substantially examined by the examiner. Normally, the first office action(if any) will be issued within 2 months after the PPH request has been accepted, comparing with 12 to 18 months of pending period for the general application after requesting for substantive examination. For another, the authorization rate is higher than the general application.

If the PCT application has received a positive written opinion or an international preliminary examination report of patentability at the international phase, the applicant can file a PCT-PPH request to the Patent Office at the same time when we request for the substantive examination at the national phase. Else if you’ve chosen Paris Convention Route to enter into the national phase, General-PPH may be requested if you can provide the Office Actions, Responses to those Office Actions and Grant Notice(if any) of the Priority Patent.

In brief, you don’t need to decide whether to apply PPH in New Zealand or not until you request for the substantive examination. You can leave this matter behind because we will notify you in time.