EPO and Israel sign patent prosecution deal

The European Patent Office (EPO) and the Israel Patent Office (IPO) have agreed a patent deal set to speed up examinations at both offices.

Starting next month, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) will allow applicants to request accelerated examination of a patent at either office provided the claims have been previously deemed acceptable by the other.

The agreement was signed yesterday (December 4) by heads of both offices in Brussels, Belgium.

Asa Kling, director of the IPO, said the programme would “enhance co-operation between the offices” and further strengthen the economic and technological relations between Israel and Europe.

According to the EPO it has recently signed similar agreements with the patent offices of Canada, Mexico and Singapore.

All four programmes will begin on January 6.

EPO president Benoît Battistelli said: "Thanks to this and similar pilot programmes we are launching, European companies can benefit from simplified access to patent protection in these dynamic regions.”

The EPO received 1,783 patent filings from inventors and companies from Israel in 2013, an increase of 7% on the previous year.

At the start of the year WIPR reported that a global PPH, involving 17 countries, had been launched.