the start of a PPH pilot programme?

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme will allow applicants to get patents faster and more efficiently from both offices, by enabling each to make use of work previously done by the other and thus reduce duplication. The pilot started on 29 January 2010 and will run for a trial period of two years.

For more details about the JPO-EPO PPH pilot programme, see: http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/journal/informationEPO/archive/20100125a.html