As of December 2022, the CNIPA has launched Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programs with 30 national/regional patent offices, namely Japan, Germany, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, Poland, IP5 (referring to EPO, USPTO, JPO, KIPO and CNIPA), Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Hungary, Chile, the Czech Republic, Egypt, the Eurasian Patent Organization, African Regional Patent Organization, Brazil, Malaysia, Argentina, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and France.

According to its PPH data, the CNIPA accepted a total of 5,167 PPH requests in 2022, of which 1,323 were made by applicants using the JPO’ work results, 2,451 using the USPTO’s work results, 857 using those of the EPO, 275 KIPO, 68 the German Patent and Trademark Office, and 44 the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office.

It takes an average of 1.21 months from filing a PPH request with the CNIPA to issuing the first office action, and an average of 8.76 months to the grant or rejection of a patent application, with an average of 1.19 office actions issued.

According to the PPH data from the patent offices of the various countries, a total of 3,005 PPH requests were made using the CNIPA’s work results. Of these, 2,035 PPH requests were filed with the USPTO, 303 with the JPO, 230 with the EPO, and 179 with the KIPO.