Law360, New York ( June 4, 2013, 1:16 PM EDT) -- Recent changes in the Patent Prosecution Highway open up new filing strategies for U.S. inventors who want expedited examination without the costs of Track 1 prioritized examination or who want greater flexibility and lower costs when building international patent portfolios. These updated PPH programs — known as the "PPH 2.0" — make it possible for a U.S. applicant to advance prosecution of a U.S. case based on an allowance in a corresponding foreign case, even if the foreign case was filed after the U.S. case. This enables U.S. inventors to exploit the higher speed, lower cost, and increased grant rate of the PPH for their U.S. applications....