India: Government approves the Patent Prosecution Highway programme

The Government of India on November 20, 2019 approved the proposal for adoption of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme by the Indian Patent Office (IPO).

As per the press release issued by the Commerce & Industry Ministry, the said programme will initially commence between Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Indian Patent Office on pilot basis for a period of three years only. However, the ambit of the programme may be extended in future.

Under this Pilot programme, Indian Patent Office may receive patent applications in certain specified technical fields only, namely, Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science, Information Technology, Physics, Civil, Mechanical, Textiles, Automobiles and Metallurgy while JPO may receive applications in all fields of technology.

Hereinafter, the Indian Patent office will frame its own guidelines for implementation of the PPH programme.