The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced the launch on 29 September 2008 of its one-year trial cooperation programme with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the "patent prosecution highway" (PPH). The programme was first announced in April 2008 and allows patent applications that have been examined and allowed in either the EPO or the USPTO to be fast-tracked in the other office. The EPO announcement also sets out the requirements for filing a request for participation in the PPH programme. The majority of applications are filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty, but these will not be covered by the programme, which only extends to applications filed under the Paris Convention.

http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/InformationEPO/archiveinfo/20080926.html).