PCT Update
February 23, 2010
Quan-Ling SIM
Head
PCT Outreach and User Relations Section
1
142 PCT States
=PCT
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic People's
Republic of Korea
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Estonia
Finland
France,
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People’s Dem Rep.
Latvia
Lesotho
Liberia
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Malta
Mauritania
Mexico
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Korea
Republic of Moldova
Romania
Russian Federation
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines
San Marino
Sao Tomé e Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Swaziland
St. Kitts and Nevis
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Thailand
The former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United Republic of Tanzania
United States of America
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yugoslavia
Zambia
Zimbabwe
2
PCT Statistics
180000
160000
140000
120000
fall of 4.5% overall in 2009
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
78
80
82
84
86
88
90
92
94
96
98
00
02
04
06
08
3
International Applications Received in 2009
by Country of Origin
50,000
45,000
Increase/decline in certain national
offices
40,000
US: -11.4%
China overtakes France
for the first time (and files
only 120 less than KR)
35,000
30,000
JP: +3.6%
DE: -11.2%
25,000
KR: +2.1%
20,000
CN: +29.7%
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
US
JP
DE
KR
CN
FR
GB
NL
CH
SE
IT
CA
FI
AU
IL
4
Top PCT Applicants (2009)
1. Panasonic--JP (1891)
2. Huawei--CN (1847)
3. Bosch--DE (1586)
4. Philips--NL (1295)
5. Qualcomm--US (1280)
6. Ericsson--SE (1240)
7. LG Electronics--KR (1090)
8. NEC--JP (1069)
9. Toyota--JP (1068)
10. Sharp--JP (997)
11. Siemens--DE (932)
12. Fujitsu--JP (817)
13. BASF--DE (739)
14. 3M--US (688)
15. Nokia--FI (663)
16. Microsoft--US (644)
17. Samsung Electronics--KR (596)
18. NXP--NL (593)
19. Mitsubishi Electric--JP (569)
20. HP--US (554)
5
The PCT International Searching Authorities
The ISAs are the following 17 offices:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Australia
Austria
Brazil
Canada
China
Egypt (hoping to begin operating April 2010)
Finland
India (not yet operating)
Israel (not yet operating)
Japan
Republic of Korea
Russian Federation
Spain
Sweden
United States of America
European Patent Office
Nordic Patent Institute
6
Supplementary International Search: Authorities
• Participation of ISAs
–
–
–
–
NPI—Jan. 1, 2009
RU—Jan. 1, 2009
SE—Jan. 1, 2009—limitation to 1000 Supp. Searches/year
FI—Jan. 1, 2010 (began operation January 1, 2010)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
AT—later in 2010
AU—under consideration
BR—considering offering the service in 2011
CA—no intention to offer in near future
CN—under consideration
EP—planned for July 1, 2010, limited initially to 700 in the first year
ES—no intention, but signs of possible reevaluation
IN—unknown
JP—no intention
KR—no intention to offer in near future
US—considering offering the service through contractors
7
PCT Legal Developments
• Complete set of amended claims required when amending
– Instead of replacement sheets of affected claims
– Entry into force: July 1, 2009
• Express indication of basis for amendment in PCT
application as filed
– Amended Rules 46.5 and 66.8 and the proposed addition of new
Rule 70.2(c-bis), requiring applicants to indicate the basis for
amendments in IA as filed
– Entry into force: July 1, 2010, applying to any PCT application where
amendment is made on or after July 1, 2010
• Outcome in State of Florida v. Federated Institute for Patent
and Trademark Registry and Bernd Taubert, Dec. 2009
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Please Assist Us!
• WIPO is continuing to reach out to law enforcement
authorities in a number of US States and other countries to
try to obtain results like in the Florida Federated case
• Please inform
– All persons who are listed as applicants or inventors in your PCT
applications (as well as in European patent applications, Madrid
Agreement trademark applications and European trademark
applications for that matter) about these notifications and what to do
with them
– All persons who might reasonably see one of these notifications in
your companies or law offices
• The “service” offered has no value in the opinion of WIPO
– WARNING: Requests for Payment of Fees
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PCT Meeting of International Authorities
(February 2010)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Future of the PCT
Quality Framework
PCT User Survey Results
Assistance for Green Inventions
Supplementary International Search
Paragraph Amendment of PCT Applications
Future work
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PCT Working Group Meeting
(June 2010)
• Studies to be prepared by the International Bureau
– Background of need to improve PCT functioning, problems,
challenges, causes, options, etc. (“why did we propose the PCT
Roadmap?”)
– Fee reduction criteria for small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs)
– Eligibility criteria for 90% fee reductions
• The PCT and Green Technologies
• Third Party Observations
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PCT and the Patent Prosecution Highway
• Trilateral offices began a pilot project January 29, 2010 in
which positive PCT search reports and positive International
Preliminary Reports on Patentability (IPRPs) will be a basis
for Patent Prosecution Highway requests in the Trilateral
offices
– Announced formally at the November 2009 Trilateral Conference in
Kyoto
– Further details available on USPTO, EPO and JPO websites
13
Practical PCT Developments (1)
• Private file inspection
– Document upload system available to all PCT users as of Jan. 18,
2010
• PCT Service Centre
• Examples: notices of withdrawal, Art. 19 amendments, Rule 92bis
requests, SIS requests, informal comments on WO/ISA, general
correspondence for IB
• Limitations: 1) IB must have received Record copy
2) only post-filing documents for the IB--NOT filings of IAs
• Strong preference for PDF text
• Email notifications
– Up to now have been able to request (from IB and participating
offices) email copies of notifications in addition to paper
– From Jan. 1, 2010, additional option for email only
– ***Strongly recommended to opt for email only once sufficient
experience has been gained with paper/email parallel receipt of
notifications
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Practical PCT Developments (2)
• Priority documents
– Digital Access Service (DAS)
• Starting Jan. 1, 2010, International Bureau (IB) can retrieve pdocs
through DAS for use with PCT applications
• Thus, applicant can request IB to retrieve pdoc from DAS instead of
providing a certified copy, if:
– Document has been added to DAS by participating office
– Applicant has used DAS web portal to give IB access to the
document
• Currently 7 participating offices (AU, ES, GB, IB, JP, KR, US)
• How to use it:
– If filing on paper, check relevant box on request form in Box No. VI
– If filing electronically (PCT-SAFE and PCT-EASY): attach a letter
requesting IB to retrieve pdoc using DAS—software will be updated
soon to include this feature
– If previously filed, send letter to IB before expiration of 16 months
from priority, requesting retrieval via DAS
– Direct access from digital libraries—coming soon
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Practical PCT Developments (3)
• PCT webinars
• PCT distance learning
• New resources for PCT applicants
– PCT Caselaw database now available
• Text-searchable decisions from national courts and regional
administrative bodies, with abstracts and references added by IB
• New version of PCT-SAFE software (Jan. 1, 2010)
• PATENTSCOPE® enhancements
– Full file contents available for IAs filed on or after 1 Jan. 2009
– National phase entry data now for 43 offices (recent addition of African
Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), Belarus, Hungary,
Malaysia and the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO),
– Searchable national collections in new interface for public testing
• ARIPO, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico, Vietnam, Israel,
PCT, All
• 10 query language choices, 10 interface language choices, customizable
settings, integration of GoogleTranslate, graphical results
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Contact
• PCT Information Service
– Telephone: (+41-22) 338 83 38
– Facsimile: (+41-22) 338 83 39
– E-mail: pct.infoline@wipo.int
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