The Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) launched the Collaborative Search and Examination (CS&E) pilot programme on 1 March 2023 to provide applicants with search and examination results from the participating offices early in the patent grant process. For more details, please see our article: link. This programme is the first of its kind among the patent offices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In August 2024, the programme was amended to expand the types of patent applications eligible to participate and to extend its duration to better meet the needs of applicants. Key changes to the CS&E programme include:
+ Elimination of the requirement that the initial application must be first filed in Singapore or Vietnam. Accordingly, applications with a priority claim or a divisional applications are now acceptable under the programme.
+ Extension of the programme’s duration by two years, until 28 February 2027 (previously, the programme was set to end on 28 February 2025).
+ Elimination of the requirement that the CS&E request must be filed on the filing date of the application in the first country (Vietnam or Singapore). Instead, it must be filed together with the request for substantive examination so that after the CS&E Report is available (no later than 10 months from the date of receipt of the CS&E request), the applicant can request to expedite the examination of the corresponding application filed in the second country.
If the applicant has already filed a request for substantive examination in the second country, they may submit the CS&E Report from the first country within two months from the date of issuance of the CS&E Report to request an expedited examination.
The CS&E pilot programme offers several benefits to applicants, including accelerated application examinations, reduced patent costs, and a faster time-to-market strategy.
In addition to this pilot programme, there are three other programmes for accelerating patent examinations in Vietnam:
1. Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme with the Japanese Patent Office
2. PPH pilot programme with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and
3. ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) programme.
Unlike the three programmes mentioned above, which primarily involve referring to foreign examination results by the IPVN, the CS&E pilot programme involves both patent offices conducting searches and examinations on the same case and exchanging the results. Consequently, this programme represents a significant collaborative effort between the two offices.
By Nguyen Duc Thang and Hoang Thi Phuong
Patent Department
