Which condition regarding the allowed claims is NOT required for PPH eligibility?

When considering the eligibility requirements for the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program, it's important to understand how claims are treated. For PPH eligibility, the stipulation regarding claims is that they do not need to be identical to the allowed claims.

In fact, it is specifically noted that while there must be at least one allowed claim in the corresponding application, the claims in the application that seeks to benefit from the PPH do not have to be identical to those claims. Instead, they can be similar or have a broader or narrower scope than the allowed claims. This flexibility serves to facilitate smoother transitions and expedited examination processes between participating patent offices.

Thus, the requirement that claims must be identical to the allowed claims is not a condition for eligibility in the PPH program, making it the correct answer. This allows applicants to adapt their claims to different jurisdictions while still benefiting from the examination performed in another patent office.