What is the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)?
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) helps you accelerate the internationalization of your invention. If at least one patent claim in your initial application has been deemed patentable by an office participating in the PPH, you can request an expedited examination of your subsequent application at partner offices.
The Austrian Patent Office participates in the PPH and cooperates with over 25 partner offices worldwide—covering a total of over 50 countries. The PPH request is free of charge; only the standard national filing fees at the respective partner office apply. The advantage is that you obtain your patent abroad more quickly.
Patent Prosecution Highway: the basics
A PPH request must meet the following criteria:
- Your initial application was filed with a participating office
- Your subsequent application is filed with a partner office of the office where the initial application was filed
- You have claimed the priority of the initial application for the subsequent application
- At least one claim was found to be patentable by the Office of Earlier Examination (however, the Office of Later Examination is not bound by this opinion)
- All claims of the subsequent application must also appear in the initial application
- No substantive examination or grant has so far been carried out at the Office of Later Examination
Tip: It is advisable to file the PPH request as early as possible to benefit from a genuine acceleration.
You can request expediated examination under the PPH at these partner offices of the Austrian Patent Office:
Australia, ARIPO (Botswana, Cabo Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Eswatini, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda), Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Nordic Patent Office (Denmark, Norway, Iceland), Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Visegrád Patent Institute (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia).
Is there a country that’s missing from this list? Let us know – we are constantly striving to expand our partnerships.
Compared to the regular PPH, PPH eXtra offers even shorter and more predictable processing times. The participating offices have set binding time limits for processing of patent applications. These limits are reviewed regularly and are available on the official PPH website.
Austria joined the agreement on July 1, 2025, becoming the fifth country to participate—alongside China, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S.—and the first European country to be a member of the PPH eXtra agreement. If you file a PPH application with a participating office, you automatically benefit from PPH eXtra. No additional request is necessary.
PCT + PPH? Absolutely!
You can also use the PPH as part of a PCT procedure (PCT-PPH). The basis for this is the work performed during the international phase—such as the international search report or the preliminary examination report. You can learn more about this on our page about the PCT procedure.
Patent Prosecution Highway: how it works
The following documents must be submitted with the PPH request:
- Completed PPH request form (form for China or Mexico, all other partner countries)
- Copies of all decisions from the Office of Earlier Examination
- A copy of the examined claims
- A claims correspondence table showing that all claims of the subsequent application are also present in the original application
- If applicable, copies of relevant documents (e.g., non-patent literature)
At the Austrian Patent Office: it is best to file the PPH request together with your patent application via Online Filing Patent. However, filing as a supplementary submission is also possible.
For a partner office: submit the PPH application and the required documents to the desired partner office. Details on the requirements of the individual partner offices can be found in the respective PPH guidelines: Separate PPH guidelines apply to China and Mexico; for all other partner countries, the Global PPH Guidelines apply.
Please note: the Office of Later Examination is not bound by the assessment of the Office of Earlier Examination.