The State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) published statistics on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) covering November 1, 2011, when it began accepting foreign PPH requests, through December 31, 2014.

By December 31, 2014, SIPO had received 9,587 PPH requests from foreign applicants. The number received in 2014 rose by approximately 20% over the previous year. The average period from submission of a PPH request to the first office action was 2.5 months, while the average period from submission to the final decision was 10.1 months. Applicants from Japan and the United States accounted for the largest shares of requests.

The accompanying figures show SIPO’s PPH partner offices, requests by year and applicant origin, the average number of office actions, and the distribution of PPH cases by technical field.

The office-action comparison covers office actions issued between July and December 2014 in cases using the regular PPH route.

Of the 9,587 requests, 7,398 were regular PPH requests and 2,189 were PCT-PPH requests. Japan accounted for 59% of the total.

China’s PPH cooperation partners and programme commencement dates.
China’s PPH cooperation partners and programme commencement dates.
Annual PPH requests filed with SIPO, 2011–2014.
Annual PPH requests filed with SIPO, 2011–2014.
Origin of PPH requests filed with SIPO.
Origin of PPH requests filed with SIPO.
Average office actions for regular PPH applications, by office, July–December 2014. In the United States, the PPH average was 2.62, compared with 3.7 for non-PPH applications.
Average office actions for regular PPH applications, by office, July–December 2014. In the United States, the PPH average was 2.62, compared with 3.7 for non-PPH applications.
IPC distribution of PPH cases: A, human necessities, 8%; B, performing operations and transporting, 16%; C, chemistry and metallurgy, 12%; D, textiles and paper, 1%; E, fixed constructions, 2%; F, mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and blasting, 13%; G, physics, 22%; H, electricity, 26%.
IPC distribution of PPH cases: A, human necessities, 8%; B, performing operations and transporting, 16%; C, chemistry and metallurgy, 12%; D, textiles and paper, 1%; E, fixed constructions, 2%; F, mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and blasting, 13%; G, physics, 22%; H, electricity, 26%.