By Carola Monintja
A new opportunity for applicants seeking faster and more efficient patent examination in Indonesia and China.
Following the successful Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs with Japan and Korea, the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of Indonesia (DGIP) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) have launched a bilateral PPH Pilot Program. The program took effect on 01 August 2026 and will run for five years.
Key Takeaways
- Conform, don’t just correspond: Align Indonesian patent claims fully to your allowed CN patent claims.
- Timing is everything: File before DGIP starts substantive examination, or the window closes.
- It works both ways: Indonesian applicants can equally fast-track filings into China.
Is Your Patent PPH-Ready?
From a practitioner’s perspective, this is one of the more consequential PPH launches in recent years. China is among the largest sources of foreign-origin patent filings into Indonesia, and Indonesian applicants increasingly file into China as part of their regional strategy, so a working bilateral fast-track between DGIP and CNIPA directly serves the applicant traffic that already exists between the two offices, rather than opening a route few will use.
The PPH allows applicants to request accelerated examination of a patent application in one country by relying on relevant examination results from the other country. In practice, this means that where CNIPA has found certain claims in a corresponding Chinese application to be patentable or allowable, the applicant may use those results to support a request for accelerated examination of the corresponding Indonesian application before DGIP, provided that the applicable PPH requirements are met.
The process also works in reverse, allowing examination results from DGIP to support a PPH request before CNIPA. This reciprocity is worth emphasising: Indonesian applicants including local companies, research institutions, and universities, with allowed or granted claims before DGIP should equally consider using this pilot to accelerate corresponding filings in China, rather than treating the program as a one-way benefit for foreign applicants filing into Indonesia.
Importantly, PPH does not guarantee the grant of a patent. DGIP and CNIPA will continue to examine applications independently in accordance with their respective national laws.
Key Requirements
For a PPH request before DGIP based on CNIPA examination results, applicants generally need to establish that:
- The Indonesian and Chinese applications have the same earliest priority or filing date;
- The applications belong to the same relevant patent family;
- The Indonesian claims sufficiently correspond to the claims found allowable by CNIPA;
- At least one CNIPA claim has been determined to be patentable or allowable;
- Relevant CNIPA examination documents, cited references, and a claim correspondence table are provided, where required; and
- The PPH request is filed before substantive examination begins. We recommend filing the PPH request together with the request of substantive examination.
In practice, the claim correspondence requirement is where most PPH requests succeed or stumble. Under DGIP’s standard, every claim submitted for examination under the PPH must “sufficiently correspond” to a claim found patentable or allowable by CNIPA.
In our experience, however, it is best practice to go a step further than mere sufficiency and amend the Indonesian claims to be fully conformed to the allowed/granted CNIPA claims, rather than relying on a merely similar or narrower claim set. This reduces the risk of a correspondence objection from DGIP and keeps the examination genuinely fast-tracked. Applicants should compare the CNIPA-allowed claims against the pending Indonesian claim set as soon as the Chinese Notice of Allowance issues, and file the conforming amendment in Indonesia before requesting PPH. Because DGIP will not accept a PPH request once substantive examination has begun, this comparison exercise should start well before the Indonesian national phase deadline, not after.
Why Does It Matter?
For businesses with patent portfolios in both Indonesia and China, the PPH Pilot Program provides a practical option for streamlining cross-border patent prosecution. By leveraging examination work already conducted by one patent office, applicants may reduce duplication and potentially accelerate examination in the other jurisdiction.
With the five-year pilot now in effect, applicants with corresponding patent applications in Indonesia and China should consider the PPH at an early stage of their prosecution strategy to take advantage of a potentially faster, more efficient route to patent examination.
Practical Takeaways
- Map your portfolio now: Identify pending Indonesian applications with a granted or allowed corresponding CNIPA family member, and check them against the eligibility criteria above.
- Align claims early: Reconcile the CNIPA-allowed claims with the pending Indonesian claim set as soon as the Chinese outcome is known, and amend before requesting PPH if the scopes diverge.
- Watch the timing, not just the eligibility: Because the request must be filed before DGIP substantive examination begins, coordinate with your China and Indonesia counsel so a favourable CNIPA result can still be used when it lands.
- Use it both ways: Indonesian applicants with allowed DGIP claims should equally consider a PPH request into China, not only the CNIPA-to-DGIP direction.
We at KASS International are happy to help further with your inquiries on this. If you hold corresponding patent applications in Indonesia and China or are planning filings in either jurisdiction, talk to our patent team in our Indonesian Office. We can screen your portfolio for PPH eligibility, prepare the claim correspondence table, and manage the request before DGIP or CNIPA on your behalf.
Contact your KASS attorney or reach out to us at hello@kass.asia to get started.