Bahrain, Japan to launch Patent Prosecution Highway in 2026

17 October 2025

Bahrain and Japan have formalized a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement set to launch on January 1, 2026, to streamline the patent examination process between the two jurisdictions.

This programme will allow innovators to leverage a favourable patent ruling from one country to request accelerated processing in the other. The initiative is designed to reduce duplication of work, shorten decision times, and provide more efficient and robust intellectual property protection.

The agreement with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) underscores Bahrain’s commitment to developing a world-class IP ecosystem to attract high-quality investment. Japan joins an expanding list of Bahrain's PPH partners, including the patent offices of the United States, China, South Korea, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

“The new Patent Prosecution Highway agreement fundamentally alters the strategic approach to securing patent protection within Bahrain and, by extension, the broader Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market,” said Jehad Ali Hasan, CEO of JAH Intellectual Property in Doha. “The PPH allows clients to dramatically expedite the patent grant process in Bahrain by leveraging a final ruling of patentability from the JPO, one of the world’s leading IP offices. This enables earlier market exclusivity and faster enforcement against infringement. In terms of cost, clients can anticipate a reduction in overall prosecution expenses.”

He added: “The Bahraini patent office will rely heavily on the JPO’s established work product, minimizing the need for extensive, often lengthy, local substantive examination and eventually may reduce the professional fees associated with responding to multiple domestic office actions. Finally, concerning risk, the PPH significantly mitigates the uncertainty of achieving a grant. A favourable finding from the JPO provides a high degree of confidence and predictability, ensuring the granted patent in Bahrain is of high quality and possesses a robust basis for future defensive and offensive litigation strategies across the region.”

Mohcine Fattah, an IP senior director at the same firm, added that the primary legal divergence in patent eligibility lies in the specific exclusions maintained by Bahrain, which must adhere to the specific Patent Law framework.

“While the JPO is highly sophisticated in handling complex technical fields like computer-implemented inventions and biotechnology, claims must be adapted to ensure they do not contravene any explicit local public order or morality exclusions in Bahrain. For a successful PPH request, the fundamental requirement of sufficient correspondence must be strictly met. The claims in the Bahraini application must be identical to or narrower than the claims found allowable by the JPO. Therefore, the essential adaptation is a preemptive one,” he said.

He added that one of the major limitations is that the agreement applies only to the national patent office and does not automatically extend its benefits to the separate GCC Patent Office.

“However, the execution of this agreement signals a powerful trend in the Middle East: a commitment to modernization and international harmonization. By expanding its PPH network, Bahrain is unequivocally positioning itself as a key regional IP gateway that favours efficiency, quality and predictability. This development should prompt clients to prioritize jurisdictions that demonstrate this level of international cooperation, viewing them as central hubs for high-quality, expedited patent protection across the entire MENA region,” he said.

- Excel V. Dyquiangco