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PCT Update

February 23, 2010

Quan-Ling SIMHeadPCT Outreach and User Relations Section

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=PCT

AlbaniaAlgeriaAngolaAntigua and BarbudaArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahrain BarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana BrazilBulgariaBurkina FasoCameroonCanadaCentral African RepublicChadChileChina Colombia Comoros Congo

Costa RicaCôte d'IvoireCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDemocratic People's Republic of KoreaDenmarkDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial Guinea EstoniaFinlandFrance,

GabonGambiaGeorgia GermanyGhana GreeceGrenadaGuatemalaGuinea

Guinea-Bissau HondurasHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIreland IsraelItalyJapanKazakhstanKenyaKyrgyzstanLao People’s Dem Rep.Latvia Lesotho LiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein LithuaniaLuxembourgMadagascar

MalawiMalaysiaMaliMaltaMauritaniaMexicoMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueNamibia NetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorwayOmanPapua New GuineaPeruPhilippines

PolandPortugalRepublic of Korea Republic of MoldovaRomaniaRussian FederationSaint LuciaSaint Vincent and the Grenadines San MarinoSao Tomé e PrincipeSenegalSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSouth AfricaSpainSri LankaSudanSwaziland

St. Kitts and NevisSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTajikistan ThailandThe former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia TogoTrinidad and Tobago TunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited Republic of TanzaniaUnited States of AmericaUzbekistanViet NamYugoslaviaZambiaZimbabwe

142 PCT States

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PCT Statistics

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

fall of 4.5% overall in 2009

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0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

US JP DE KR CN FR GB NL CH SE IT CA FI AU IL

International Applications Received in 2009 by Country of Origin

China overtakes France for the first time (and files only 120 less than KR)

Increase/decline in certain national offices

US: -11.4%

JP: +3.6%

DE: -11.2%

KR: +2.1%

CN: +29.7%

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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)

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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

The PCT International Searching Authorities

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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

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• 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

PCT Legal Developments

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• 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

Please Assist Us!

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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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• 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

PCT Working Group Meeting(June 2010)

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• 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

PCT and the Patent Prosecution Highway

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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