Yesterday I blogged about the fact that Europe and US do their daylight saving time changes on different weekends: E-filing at WIPO – you get an extra hour. This prompted Ann Bardini of WIPO to write to me to offer a reminder of some of the features of ePCT that help users to keep track of when midnight is coming and when a filer’s last possible filing date is imminent. With her permission I have more or less converted her email message into the following guest blog posting.
(Comments from Ann Bardini of WIPO)
A gentle reminder that, if you use ePCT, the system will keep track of the date and time at the recipient Office for you, be it at the IB or elsewhere – there is no need to memorize any local times. Here are some examples.
Current date and time at the IB when performing an ePCT Action such as Request under Rule 92bis:
Current date and time at the competent IPEA when performing an ePCT Action to submit the Demand under Chapter II:
When the last day of a deadline to submit is reached, a countdown of the number of hours remaining in the time zone of the recipient Office is displayed in the interface and you will also receive a Notification by e-mail 24 hours in advance of the deadline:
When preparing a new international application for filing using ePCT, if priority is claimed, the deadline to submit and the countdown of the number of hours remaining to file the application to the selected receiving Office are displayed:
Thank you, Ann. To the loyal readers — have you noticed these time and date related prompts in ePCT? Have you found them to be helpful? Please post a comment below.
Yes, I have noticed, and – as always – many thanks to both Ann and Carl!
The countdown clock is a bit deceiving I think. If your priority date is 1 year ago tomorrow, it shows that the time left to file in the countdown clock is until midnight tonight EST. The Deadline is correctly shown but not the time remaining countdown clock.