USPTO Director Lee Emerges From Silence, Praises Latin America For Joining Patenting Scheme

The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Michelle Lee, today resurfaced after weeks of silence, speaking after the trilateral meeting of the US, European and Japan patent offices. Among her remarks was praise for Latin American countries for joining the Patent Prosecution Highway, which she said has already resulted in much faster patents in the region.

“[W]e’re happy to report that we have expanded our Patent Prosecution Highway footprint in Latin America,” Lee said in prepared remarks. “And, as you may know, we launched a PPH with INPI-Brazil in January 2016 and INPI-Argentina earlier this month. The Brazilian PPH was the result of several years of discussions with our counterparts at both their office and within the Brazilian government. The program runs until January 2018, and we’re hoping that we can soon begin discussions about extending it and broadening the scope of the arrangement.

“Currently, a PPH request can be filed in the United States for all areas of technology, but Brazil limits PPH requests to applications for oil and gas technologies that are filed in that country on or after January 11, 2013. Even with those restrictions, Brazil’s IP office has so far received 36 PPH petitions, and of those, 10 have resulted in issued patents,” Lee said. “To put that into perspective, the Brazilian IP Office has issued at least 10 patents within three years or less of their filing date. This is a sharp improvement from their historic 12 to 15 year pendency.”

Lee also gave details on progress in the US on several fronts, such as patent quality and post-grant procedures.

Her full remarks are available here.