The application under the New Route is not an international application but a national/regional application, and no duplication exists between international phase and national/regional phase. Since the OFF do not need to carry out redundant searches and examinations for the international phase and the national/regional phase, it contributes to the improved efficiency and the cost reduction.
Under the new framework, applicants are given a sufficient time after receiving the search and examination result of the OFF to decide whether they should continue the procedure in the OSF. Therefore, an applicant is able to save costs by discontinuing the procedure in the OSF if it turns out to be unnecessary.
Applicants can also obtain patents abroad by means of filing a single national application to their home country which is deemed as a regular national/regional application filed in other countries, and the national application generates the secret-prior art status in other countries.
Analogous New Route Pilot Project
The JPO and the USPTO basically agreed in March 2007 to commence the analogous New Route pilot project and at the Trilateral Technical Meeting, 15-17 May 2007, they decided to resolve administrative matters prior to pilot implementation start on December 3rd, 2007 (target date).
On January 28, 2008, the JPO and the USPTO started the Analogous New Route Pilot Project. Notices regarding the application requirements and the procedures for participating in the pilot were posted on the JPO and the USPTO websites. The relevant links are as follows:
The pilot with the USPTO that commenced on January 28, 2008, will continue for a period of one year or until a total of 50 applications have been processed in both Offices, whichever comes first. At the end of the pilot, the JPO and the USPTO will evaluate the pilot to determine the following:
- how to improve the concept of New Route and
- whether the New Route resulted in an improvement in the quality and usability of the First Action by OSF.