In a bid to further enhance the user experience of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has announced joining the "PPH Improvement Initiative," which involves cooperation between the world's five leading intellectual property (IP) offices, namely China, the United States, Europe, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The objective of this initiative is to strive for an average duration of 3 months both from the grant of a PPH request to the issuance of first office action and for an average response time from examiner to the applicant, thereby providing PPH users with a more predictable examination cycle.

(Source: website of the CNIPA)