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The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) has now been signed by 139 countries and four regional patent systems. The latest to sign are:
A complete list of PCT countries is available on this website. Recent News
PCT Changes Effective 1 July 2008On 3 October 2007, the PCT Union adopted a number of changes to the rules, which apply to all International Applications filed on or after 1 July 2008. The principal changes, in summary, are:
Warning about requests for Payment of FeesThe World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), which is the agency administering the PCT system, has issued the following warning: It has come to our attention that PCT applicants and agents are continuing to receive invitations to pay fees that do not come from the International Bureau of WIPO and are unrelated to the processing of international applications under the PCT. Whatever registration services might be offered in such invitations, they bear no connection to WIPO or to any of its official publications. The invitations often identify a particular PCT application by its international publication number (for example: WO 03 xxxxxx), publication date, title of the invention, international application number, priority information and IPC symbols. The invitations typically refer to a payment, which is to be made in euro or US dollars, by cheque and/or money transfer to an address in Germany or Switzerland. The invitations appear to come from different sources—the ones we have been informed about have come from:
Examples of the invitations from these sources are available on the PCT website at: www.wipo.int/pct/en/warning/pct_warning.htm PCT applicants and agents should note that it is the International Bureau of WIPO alone which publishes all PCT applications promptly after the expiration of 18 months from the priority date (see PCT Article 21(2)(a)); there is no separate fee for such international publication, and the legal effects of international publication are set out in PCT Article 29. In case of doubt in relation to such an invitation, please contact the PCT Information Service at WIPO: telephone: (41–22) 338 83 38 fax: (41–22) 338 83 39 e-mail: pct.infoline@wipo.int Since April 1, 2002, there has been one standard National Filing deadline for PCT - 30 months from the priority date. It is no longer necessary to file a "Chapter II Demand" or have an International Preliminary Examination to get the benefit of the full PCT delay period. This change effected all PCT applications filed after 1 April 2002, as well as all applications with a priority date less than 20 months before that date (i.e. priority date after 1 September 2000), but only in countries which have changed their national laws to conform with this change. Since a few countries still have to change their national laws to conform to this change, there remain some exceptions to the rule (and some countries have longer deadlines, see our PCT countries list). The following four countries are not subject to the 30-month rule, and a Chapter II demand is necessary to get the 30-(or 31-)month period for national patents in these countries: Luxembourg, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda. If you want to file a National Stage application in one of these countries, and do not pay the Chapter II fee before 19 months from your priority date, you will have to file National Stage before 20 months from your priority date. However, all of these countries are also members of a regional patent system (EPO or ARIPO), so you can still get protection through the regional patent up to 30/31 months without having to file nationally or Chapter II at 19 months. Some applicants may still want to file Chapter II even after this change is fully in effect, however. For example, if you are using the European Patent Office (EPO) as the International Searching Agency, and intend to file for a European Patent in the National Stage, it would be advantageous to use the EPO in Chapter II so that when you enter the National Stage the application is already examined (and you would not need to pay the EPO to examine the application again). A positive examination report on your PCT application may well save time and money on examination while you are getting national patents in other countries, as well. (but see below, if the application is in the field of business methods). The Chapter II demand must be filed before the later of (a) three months after the transmittal of the International Search Report; or (b) 22 months from the priority date. EPO will not accept PCT Applications The EPO will not act as International Searching Authority (ISA) for PCT applications from US nationals or residents in the fields of business methods- note that this change effects any application filed or which comes up for examination after 1 March 2002. If an application falls in this field, any inventor is a US national or resident, and no inventor is a national or resident of the EU, the applicant(s) will have to use the USPTO for the PCT search and examination. For the EPO notice, see: http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/pubs/oj002/01_02/01_0522.pdf Back to Patents Page | PCT Page | PCT Countries List | Patent Timeline Home || Intellectual Property || Patents || Trademarks || Copyrights Brown & Michaels, PC © Copyright 2004-2008 Brown & Michaels, PC |