The Indian Patent Office (IPO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) started a bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway Program (PPH). The filing of request under this Program commenced from 5th December 2019 as notified on 4th December 2019. After scrutiny of 100 requests received, 56 requests were accepted by IPO and the applicants were allowed to file request for expedited examination on Form 18A.

Since 44 requests were found not eligible as per the PPH Guidelines, the IPO will again start accepting Form 5-1 under Chapter 5 of the PPH Guidelines from 9th March 2020. The number of requests will be limited to 44.