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Patent Prosecution Highway in Mexico

Mexico is part of the Program for the Patent Prosecution Highway with USA as from March 1, 2011, with Japan since July 1, 2011 and with Spain as from October 1.
Mexico is part of the Program for the Patent Prosecution Highway with USA as from March 1, 2011, with Japan since July 1, 2011 and with Spain as from October 1.

The purpose of the PPH is that the applicant has an easier and faster patent proceeding than the traditional one in Mexico, as long as the applicant has the granted claims of the priority claimed in Mexico and they are issued by the Patent Office of the first filing (OFF). In this way, the Mexican Patent Office can use the search and the novelty

examination result of the OFF to speed up the prosecution in Mexico.

This Program will be in a test period for one year in which the Patent Offices involved in the Program will evaluate the results and use to decide the total implementation.

In the past, an applicant could speed up the prosecution of an application by filing a copy of the US Patent granted for the priority claimed in Mexico and adopting the US granted claims in Mexico, through a voluntary amendment.

With the PPH Program this petition to accelerate the novelty examination in Mexico is formalized.

The general requirements for an applicant to ask for the PPH Program with USA and Japan are:

– Have recognized the US or Japanese priority, through Paris Convention or by PCT.

– The Mexican application can be a national phase of a PCT without priority with the designation of USA and Japan

– Have or modify the Mexican claims with enough correspondence to the ones granted by the US or Japanese Patent Offices, as long as the result Mexican claims do not have a broader scope than the originally claimed.

– File a Request Writ before the Mexican Patent Office asking to use the PPH Program with a table of correspondence of the claims

If the Mexican Patent Office accepts the petition, the novelty examination is moved forward as long as the patent application has been published in the official Gazette and the Authority has not begun the novelty examination at the moment of receiving the petition.

The effectiveness of this Program will be evaluated within the test year, but we hope it becomes in a complete and useful system to obtain a Mexican Patent in less time and although the Mexican Patent Office has improved the times of granting, with the implementation of the PPH we could reduce the time of a patent prosecution and have even better results.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles