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Patent Applications in Colombia: a increase of the Patent Prosecution Highway procedure

Nowadays, most of our clients indicate that want to take advantage of Patent Prosecution Highway (PHH) convention.

The aim of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is to accelerate prosecution in one office using positive examinatiosn results received from another office.

The applicants who wish to seek protection in Colombia for patent applications previously filed in other countries have the opportunity to inform to the Colombian PTO the allowance of corresponding patent application in USA or Spain in order to try speed up the examination in Colombia.

It is important to bear in mind that said petition only can be done before the Colombian PTO when the patentability examination is required. This is the part of the prosecution wherein the Colombian PTO takes into consideration the information issued by USPTO or ESPTO.

The applicant should file together with the examination request the following information:

a copy of Decision which was relevant to determine the patentability in the USPTO/ESPTO containing the claims and translation thereof;
a copy of all claims that have been established as patentable in USPTO/ESPTO and translation thereof;
a copy of prior art, information and documents that were cited by the USPTO/ESPTO in the examination report including all non-patent literature;
a comparative table wherein the applicant explains and shows how the subject matter containing in Colombian Patent Application is the same as the one covered and allowed in US counterpart application.
Thus, the opportunity for our clients to file previous information in relation to the corresponding patent application granted in USPTO/ESPTO is the better way to try to speed up the patentability prosecution in Colombia as long as said information has to be filed together with the patentability examination request.