After the application has entered the examination stage and is being examined, the Applicant can take advantage of the “Accelerated Examination Program (AEP)” or the “Patent Prosecution Highway Program (PPH)” to accelerate examination of his patent application.
To be specific, the Applicant can file an AEP request any time during the prosecution for his application under either of the following two conditions: (1) when a foreign counterpart has been allowed or issued; or (2) when he is planning to commercially practice the claimed invention, e.g. licensing it to others.
On the other hand, before the TIPO issues the first examination opinion, the Applicant can file a PPH request under either of the following two conditions: (1) when his application claims priority to a corresponding US, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, or Polish application; or (2) when his application claims priority from a PCT application designating the US, Japan, Korea, Spain, or Poland. Note that the Applicant will be requested to revise the claims to conform to the allowed claims of the US, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, or Polish counterpart, or to be narrower than said allowed claims.