The Norwegian Industrial Property Office and the Chinese patent authorities are extending the cooperation agreement on the processing of patent applications. It makes it faster and cheaper for patent applicants to obtain patents for their inventions in the other country. The agreement enters into force on 1 April 2023.

The first cooperation agreement between China and Norway entered into force on 1 April 2020. The agreement means that the two countries can make use of each other's patent examination in the proceedings. Such examinations are an important part of the assessments made by national patent authorities when deciding whether new technology meets the requirements for patenting.

Despite the fact that the scheme makes case processing more efficient, it has been little used by Norwegian applicants applying for a patent in China. There have also been few PPH applications from China to Norway. Lack of knowledge about the scheme may be one of the reasons.

The agreement initially concerns a so-called PPH cooperation. PPH stands for Patent Prosecution Highway, and is a scheme that enables cooperating patent authorities to use each other's statements on patentability.

A PPH procedure can thus reduce unnecessary duplication of work in the proceedings and make it faster and cheaper for patent applicants to obtain a patent in the other country.