Insights

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program is a collaborative initiative between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and several foreign patent offices, created to speed up the examination process. Through the PPH, a patent application initially filed with a participating patent office (Office of Earlier Examination, or OEE) can be expedited in another participating intellectual property office, provided it meets specific requirements. According to the USPTO, PPH leverages fast-track examination procedures already in place among participating patent offices to allow applicants to reach final disposition of a patent application more quickly and efficiently than standard examination processing.  

Intellectual property has been in the spotlight this past year, from a landmark Copyright Fair Use case in the U.S. Supreme Court, to the more than 100 AI-related lawsuits working their way through the legal system. Despite the publicity surrounding intellectual property, patent litigation filings were down roughly 25 percent in 2023, due in part to a large decline in IP Edge filings, which normally account for hundreds of cases each year. The number of new trademark cases stayed about the same while copyright filings increased slightly.