PCT recent and future developments

Amendments to the PCT Regulations

On 1 July 2017, amendments to the PCT Regulations and consequential modifications to other PCT Texts and Forms entered into force:

• adding a new obligation for designated Offices to timely send national phase entry and related data to the International Bureau (PCT Rules 86 and 95);
• requiring receiving Offices to transmit earlier search and/or classification results to the International Searching Authority (PCT Rules 12bis, 23bis and 41);  and
• extending the deadline for requesting supplementary international search from 19 to 22 months from the priority date (PCT Rule 45bis.1).  

For a summary of the amendments, see the PCT Newsletter, June 2017 and the PowerPoint presentations on our PCT website (Amendments to the Regulations ).

New PCT Contracting State 

Jordan (country code:  JO)

On 9 March 2017, Jordan deposited its instrument of accession to the PCT, thus becoming the 152^nd Contracting State of the PCT, and, on 9 June 2017, became bound by the PCT.  Consequently, any international application filed on or after 9 June 2017 will automatically include the designation of Jordan.  Also, because Jordan is bound by Chapter II of the PCT, it will automatically be elected in any demand filed in respect of an international application filed on or after 9 June 2017. 

Furthermore, nationals and residents of Jordan are entitled, as from 9 June 2017, to file international applications under the PCT.

PCT Yearly Review 2017

PCT Yearly Review: International patent applications grew by 7.3% to 233,000 in 2016, setting a new annual record. Innovators based in the United States have filed the largest annual number of international patent applications for 39 years running. Still, large increases in patent-filing activity by China-based innovators accounted for much of the overall growth.

The top 5 countries of origin for the year were:

• United States (56,595)
• Japan (45,239)
• China (43,168)
• Germany (18,315)
• Republic of Korea (15,560)

A special theme on how applicants time their international patent filings was added to the 2017 publication.

See also infographic 2016 , press release.

Videos: Highlights Video/[YouTube] | Press Conference Video/[YouTube]

PCT Working Group

The Tenth session of the PCT Working Group took place from May 8 to 12, 2017, and agreed to submit to the PCT Assembly amendments to the Schedule of Fees and an Understanding on the 90% fee reduction as well as consequential amendments to the transmittal of earlier search and/or classification results. It further discussed inter alia fee reductions for universities and including national and cooperative classification symbols in addition to the IPC into PCT published applications.

The meeting documents, including the Chair’s Summary of the session, are available, as is a short article in the PCT Newsletter, May 2017. The meeting was held back-to-back with the PCT Committee for Technical Cooperation. The meeting documents and the Summary of the session are also available.

Meeting of International Authorities (MIA)

The 24th session of the Meeting of International Authorities took place from February 8 to 10, 2017 (Reykjavik, Iceland).  The meeting documents and the Summary, prepared by the Chair of the Meeting, are now available.

ePCT update

An all-new graphical user interface of ePCT was released in March 2017, see video Video and background information.

The following Offices now accept international applications filed using the ePCT-Filing function in the ePCT Portal:

ePCT has the best-in-class validation features – all data checks are made against the International Bureau’s database at the time of preparation of the application. To access the ePCT System or read more about the new features for applicants and patent Offices .

Collaborative search and examination: preparation of third pilot

After having completed the first and second pilot (see evaluation report ), the preparatory phase of the third pilot started with the endorsement of the CS&E Cooperation Framework by IP5 Heads, on June 2, 2016. The operational phase is expected to run for at least three years from May 1, 2018 (see document PCT/WG/10/11 ).

PCT-Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot (PCT-PPH)

PCT-PPH pathways enable applicants to request a fast track examination procedure.

• 50 per cent of overall PPH is PCT-PPH.
• Data from selected Offices in 2015 shows that PPH requests have a 7.5% to 26% higher grant rate and a 4% to 39.7% higher first Office action allowance rate than all applications combined. The average pendency rate from the PPH request to final decision was between 5.8 and 26.8 months less than for all applications combined, see PCT Yearly Review 2016 ,C.6.
• See also user experience, Carl Oppedahl [YouTube].

More about other worksharing initiatives among Offices.

Reminders

Learn the PCT video series

A series of 29 short videos (approximately 15 minutes each) presented by Matthias Reischle, Deputy Director, PCT Legal Division, WIPO [YouTube] (see also portuguese-subtitled version prepared by INPI Brazil). This series is:

• designed to provide a basic introduction to important aspects and issues in the international phase and national phase of PCT processing; and
• closely follows material covered during basic PCT training seminars and will be particularly useful for those who have not attended such seminars in person, for small and medium-sized enterprises, and for PCT users and potential users in developing and least-developed countries.

The PATENTSCOPE search engine

• PATENTSCOPE offers free access to over 64 million patent documents in addition to over 3,1 million PCT applications.
• Contains the national patent data collections of 48 national or regional patent Offices.
• PATENTSCOPE features a number of powerful tools, including cross-lingual and chemical compound search as well as machine translation. 
• Information on national phase processing of PCT applications is now available for 48 Offices.

WIPO GREEN

A platform that matches owners of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) with those seeking licensing or partnership agreements. Listing your ESTs in the WIPO GREEN platform is free of charge and offers a practical additional means for seeking potential licensees or partners.

WIPO Arbitration & Mediation Center

Gives 25% reduction in the registration and administration fees for its alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services where at least one party to the dispute has been named as an applicant or inventor in a published PCT application
(PCT Newsletter, June 2012, page 8).

Supplementary International Search

Requesting one or more supplementary international searches (SIS), during the PCT procedure, expands both the linguistic and technical scope of the search

• SIS addresses PCT applicants’ concerns about new prior art being found once they have already incurred significant costs and entered the national phase; and
• provides extra information in cases where the applicant believes that the commercial value of an invention warrants the additional expense in the international phase.

See also the report in document  PCT/MIA/20/5 and PCT/WG/8/6 .

For supplementary search request for which the 19-month time limit has not yet expired on 1 July 2017, the time limit has been extended from 19 to 22 months from the priority date.