The PCT patent prosecution highway is a work-sharing initiative for providing accelerated patent prosecution in the national phase stage by sharing information between some patent offices. A new one-way PCT-PPH pilot program has been started between the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and the National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil (INPI). This pilot program is effective from May 1, 2020, for a period of 5 years. Under this program, the Applicant of Singapore national stage patent application can request PPH before the IPOS based on a positive written opinion of International Searching Authority (ISA) or the International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), or a positive international preliminary report on patentability (IPRP), issued by INPI in its capacity as ISA/IPEA. The IPOS will treat the PPH request as a request for accelerated examination of a patent application and conduct the examination of the patent application in accordance with the Singapore Patents Act and Patents Rules
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Originally published by Khurana & Khurana, on June 2020
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