One of the reasons why filers need to start learning to use ePCT (if they have not done so already) is that some day PCT-SAFE will be gone. Yesterday, PCT-SAFE took one more step towards oblivion.
Yesterday, the European Patent Office announced that as from July 1, 2020, the RO/EP will no longer accept the filing of applications by means of PCT-SAFE. See Annex C to the PCT Applicant’s Guide, quoted above. A previous Office that dropped support for PCT-SAFE was RO/CN on March 1, 2020. Here is the ever-shrinking list of Offices that support PCT-SAFE:
- RO/CA
- RO/DE
- RO/EP (soon to cease)
- RO/ES
- RO/GB
- RO/IB
- RO/IL
- RO/KR
- RO/US