Vietnam - Japan PPH

Vietnam's National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) has entered into its first Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement with the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) this year. The PPH will start in April 2016 and means that applicants with a corresponding Japan patent may speed up examination in Vietnam. Initially there will be a trial of 100 patents to test it out.

There are already 2 accelerated examination systems operating, but they have not been widely used. There is an existing process to request faster examination, based on another patent office's prior examination, but this is dependant on the NOPs discretion and interest to speed a particular patent up. Then there is the SE Asian ASPEC system, but so far this has worked only really with corresponding Singapore patents. Hopefully the Japanese PPH will improve the position. Patent endency at present runs to 6 years.