PCT/WG/6/3 - WIPO

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|ORIGINAL: English |
|DATE: March 4, 2013 | Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
Working Group
Sixth Session
Geneva, May 21 to 24, 2013 Meeting of International Authorities under the PCT: Report on the
Twentieth Session Document prepared by the International Bureau
The Annex to this document sets out the results of the twentieth session of
the Meeting of International Authorities under the Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT/MIA), held in Munich from February 6 to 8, 2013, as outlined in
the Summary by the Chair. Annex II to this Summary by the Chair contains a
summary of the third informal session of the PCT/MIA Quality Subgroup,
which was held immediately prior to the Meeting of International
Authorities in Munich on February 4 and 5, 2013. 2. The Working Group is invited to
note the results of the
twentieth session of the Meeting
of International Authorities
under the PCT, as set out in the
Summary by the Chair (document
PCT/MIA/20/14), reproduced in
the Annex to this document.
[Annex follows] Meeting of International Authorities
under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
Twentieth Session, Munich, February 6 to 8, 2013
Summary prepared by the Chair
(noted by the Meeting; reproduced from document PCT/MIA/20/14)
introduction The Meeting of International Authorities under the PCT ("the Meeting") held
its twentieth session in Munich from February 6 to 8, 2013. The following International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities
were represented at the session: the Austrian Patent Office, the Brazilian
National Institute of Industrial Property, the Canadian Intellectual
Property Office, the European Patent Office, the Federal Service for
Intellectual Property of the Russian Federation, IP Australia, the Israel
Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property
Office, the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, the
National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile, the Nordic Patent
Institute, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, the State Intellectual
Property Office of the People's Republic of China, the Swedish Patent and
Registration Office, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The list of participants is contained in Annex I to this document.
Item 1: Opening of the session Mr. Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office, welcomed
the participants to this 20th session of the Meeting, which coincided with
the 35th anniversary of the beginning of operations of the PCT and the 40th
anniversary of the European Patent Convention. The two systems had been
developed together and both had been success stories far beyond original
expectations. Referring to the ongoing discussions among Member States on
the PCT Roadmap and the proposals submitted by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office, the Japan Patent Office and the European Patent Office on
further improvements to the PCT system, Mr. Battistelli stated that he was
confident that Member States would agree on further steps to be undertaken
to improve the PCT system, notably with regard to quality, efficiency and
timeliness of procedures, to the benefit of all stakeholders. Referring to
the document prepared by the International Bureau on the appointment of new
Authorities, Mr. Battistelli indicated that the time was ripe to review the
criteria under PCT Rule 36 with a view to ensure the highest standards of
quality expected by users of the PCT system. Mr. James Pooley, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual
Property Organization, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director
General. He especially welcomed the representatives from the National
Institute of Industrial Property of Chile, following its recent appointment
as an International Authority. Mr. Pooley further highlighted the success
of the PCT as a multilateral treaty which brought benefits to a large
number of constituents; no doubt, the fact that all constituents could
influence the future of the system by engagement in meetings of relevant
PCT bodies, such as the present one, had contributed to that success.
Item 2: Election of a Chair The session was chaired by Ms. Margot Fröhlinger, Principal Director,
Directorate General Legal/International Affairs, European Patent Office,
except for agenda items 8 and 9, which were chaired by Mr. Eugen Stohr,
Director, Directorate General International/Legal Affairs, European Patent
Office.
Item 3: Adoption of the agenda 8. The Meeting adopted the agenda as set out in document PCT/MIA/20/1 Rev.
Item 4: PCT Statistics 9. The Meeting noted the presentation by the International Bureau on the
most recent PCT Statistics[1]. One Authority, while underlining the importance of information on the
timeliness of International Searching Authorities in accordance with
Rule 42, suggested that future presentations should include information on
the timeliness of transmission by receiving Offices of the search copy to
the International Searching Authority.
Item 5: PCT Online Services (ePCT) Discussions were based on document PCT/MIA/20/2. The International Bureau summarized the existing features of ePCT, noting
in particular that the term "ePCT" in its broadest sense incorporated not
only the web interface for Offices and applicants but also a large range of
systems used internally by the International Bureau and for communication
between the International Bureau and other Offices. The aim of the system
was to allow all of these systems to be used together to provide a more
efficient and effective service for applicants and Offices which wished to
use the web interface without needing to have any knowledge of what lay
behind. Meanwhile, the underlying systems should be developed also for the
benefit of Offices which hosted their own PCT IT systems and the applicants
which used the services of those Offices. An important recent development was the introduction of a set of new
services specifically developed for receiving Offices. This was the first
major step towards the goal of providing, by the end of 2014, a complete
receiving Office service, including as many aspects as possible where the
receiving Office directly entered any necessary data (or confirmed data
provided by the applicant) rather than uploading independently produced
forms the contents of which would then need to be read and possibly
transcribed by the International Bureau. This offered a significant saving
in time and risk of errors. A similar approach was under way, and more
advanced, in relation to services for applicants dealing with the
International Bureau. However, it was necessary to extend the service to
allow interactions between the applicant and Offices other than the
International Bureau, as well as between Offices in different capacities. Some particularly important aspects of future development for Authorities
included the following: a) A pilot was about to begin of transmission of search copies from
receiving Offices to the International Searching Authority via the
International Bureau. This should significantly reduce postal delays
and allow the earlier establishment of international search reports. b) If further documents were made available through the system, including
ones not currently sent to the International Bureau, this would allow a
more complete file inspection and offer immediate access by applicants
without postal delays. c) It was intended to offer transmission of documents from applicants to
Authorities willing to receive such documents via PCT-EDI or through
the ePCT web interface (with suitable notifications to warn the
Authority that a new document was available this way). This could
permit faster responses to actions, including written opinions and
invitations to pay additional fees. d) Services would allow generation of forms or equivalent data entry
supporting the administrative aspects of the work of the International
Authorities. e) The International Bureau should assist in developing services (probably
independent of the web browser interface) to support Authorities in
providing international search reports and preliminary reports on
patentability in XML format. f) If possible, it was hoped to allow applicants to make credit card
payments to the International Bureau for fees due to at least some
receiving Offices and International Authorities. Finally, the International Bureau observed that the system had been
designed so as to allow the browser interface to be provided in any of the
languages of international publication. Testing was about to begin on this
aspect of the system and it was hoped to provide more information soon on
what timetable would be practical for introducing additional language
versions. Several Authorities emphasized the importance which they placed
on this point. All Authorities that took the floor on the matter welcomed the development
of the ePCT system and the vision which had been set out. Several
Authorities noted that they had cooperated closely in the development of
the Office services and were either testing the services or already using
them regularly for their work. The system offered great opportunities for
more effective communications and expediting services by eliminating one of
the major causes of delay, including