You might wonder which PCT Receiving Offices get selected most often by PCT filers. For many years the top Receiving Office was consistently RO/US (the USPTO). In 2019 this changed.
In 2019, the Receiving Office where more PCT applications got filed than any other was China. The US Receiving Office is now in second place. The top five Receiving Offices turn out to be the IP5, here ranked by the number of PCT filings in 2019.
- RO/CN — 52,286
- RO/US — 50,611
- RO/JP — 46,930
- RO/EP — 33,894
- RO/KR — 16,862
The next most popular RO last year was RO/IB, which received 11,606 PCT applications.
It is important for all PCT practitioners to know how to file in RO/IB. You never know when you might need to file in RO/IB, for example if your own local RO were out of service for some reason.