The Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) recently announced the number of PPH requests filed during the second stage of the third year of Phase 3 of the PPH Pilot Program between the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the IPVN. These statistics provide an opportunity to review the overall progress and trends of the program.
Trends Across Phases
The program began in 2016 and was initially scheduled for three years (Phase 1: 2016–2019). It was subsequently extended for another three years (Phase 2: 2019–2022) and then further extended into a third phase (Phase 3: 2022–2025).
Each phase includes a quota – only a limited number of PPH requests are accepted during a given period.
While the quotas of 300 requests for Phase 1 and 600 requests for Phase 2 were fully utilized, only about half of the quota for Phase 3 (361 out of 600 requests) was used. In other words, although applicants were permitted to file up to 600 PPH requests in Phase 3, only 361 have been submitted.
These figures suggest a declining demand for the program. Additional statistics from Phase 3 further support this trend.
Trends Within Phase 3
Phase 3 is divided into six stages, each lasting half a year and capped at 100 PPH requests. As shown in the table below, none of the quotas for these stages were reached.
| First year (2022-2023) |
Second year (2023-2024) |
Third year (2024-2025) |
|
| First stage | 66 | 72 | 45 |
| Second stage | 66 | 55 | 57 |
| Total | 132 | 127 | 102 |
This data shows that the declining trend is consistent not only across phases but also within the individual stages of Phase 3.
Looking Ahead: Phase 4 Extension
Despite the decreasing number of requests, the PPH program remains a valuable option – particularly for Japanese applicants seeking faster prosecution of their Vietnamese patent applications. Recognizing its ongoing relevance, the IPVN and JPO have agreed to extend the PPH Pilot Program into Phase 4, which will run from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028 (see our article).
By Ngo Khanh Linh
Patent Department
