Until now a US filer of a PCT application had the ability to choose from any of a list of seven International Searching Authorities — ISA/US (the USPTO’s contractors), ISA/EP (the European Patent Office), ISA/KR (the Korean patent office), ISA/AU (the Australian patent office), ISA/RU (the Russian patent office), ISA/IL (the Israeli patent office), and ISA/JP (the Japanese Patent Office). Starting a week from now, on April 1, 2016, US filers will be able to choose from a longer list of eight International Searching Authorities.
The eighth choice will be ISA/SG — the Singapore patent office.
A second change on April 1 will be the search fee charged by ISA/JP, an increase from $581 to $1295. So here’s how the fees rank:
- $2097 – EP
- $2080 – US (large entity)
- $1578 – SG
- $1560 – AU
- $1295 – JP
- $1120 – KR
- $1040 – US (small entity)
- $912 – IL
- $520 – US (micro entity)
- $388 – RU
There are, of course, many factors other than price that might influence a client’s choice of ISA. Factors might include quality, timeliness, and usability for PPH.