• Triway Pilot Program - A White Elephant?

    he Triway Pilot Program (TPP) is a project proposed by the Trilateral Offices (EPO, JPO and USPTO) with the aim of i) eliminating duplication of work for search and examination and ii) reducing the time period for examination. It commenced on 28 July 2008 and will end on July 28, 2009 or upon the acceptance of 100 requests submitted to the USPTO as the office of first filing. How it works

    • An applicant files an application at the USPTO (with a request for participating in the program) and, within 4 months, a corresponding application at the EPO and JPO claiming priority from the first application.
    • The USPTO produces a search report within 6 months from the filing date, sends it to the applicant for forwarding to the EPO and in a similar manner it cascades through the EPO and into the JPO, building up cited references at each step.
    • The JPO provides the first action to the applicant who forwards a copy to the EPO and the USPTO.
    • Finally, the EPO and the USPTO carry out their examination using the information provided by the other two offices.

    Comment

    The Trilateral Offices are making efforts towards cost-effective examination by sharing resources. This particular scheme is unattractive. The biggest problem is stage 1. The applicant has only 4 months to file the applications in the second and third offices. He/she can neither use the full 12 months available under the Paris Convention nor expect any search report before committing to filing at the second and third offices.

    These days, the second point is perhaps not a loss. The USPTO rarely provides a first office action before the time comes for deciding on EPO and JPO filing (not so in the EPO and UKIPO, where the search report is generally quicker). But that is why the PCT route is so popular. It gives another 18 or 19 months and almost guarantees a search report in that time. It would be a confident applicant who knows at the outset that no matter what the offices may throw back, he or she will be proceeding in the EPO and JPO. (Not to mention the drawbacks of bringing all the filing and translation costs forward to the first four months, and the loss of eight months at the end of the patent term.)

    The advantages of the Paris Convention and/ or the PCT seem to outweigh those of the Triway program. The USPTO will be lucky to get 100 Triway requests in the set year. This particular scheme may not get far, but we look forward to other initiatives to share examination results and improve efficiency of patent examination and grant.