Category: Patents

There are quite a few upcoming opportunities to learn about the Patent Cooperation Treaty:

• March 13, 2017 in San Francisco, California
• April 5-7, 2017 in Orlando, Florida
• June 8, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• July 24-25, 2017 in Alexandria, Virginia
• September 21-22, 2017 in Cary, North Carolina

March 13, 2017 in San Francisco, California.  This one-day program is sponsored by WIPO and by the PCT Learning Center.  For more information, or to sign up, click here.

April 5-7, 2017 in Orlando, Florida.  This program is two and a half days long.  The program, entitled Comprehensive PCT Practice, is sponsored by WIPO and by the Patent Resources Group.  For more information, or to sign up, click here.  I will be the presenter for this program.

June 8, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  This program, sponsored by WIPO and by the Patent Resources Group, is Patent Administration: A Foundation for Success.  For more information, or to sign up, click here.  I will be the presenter for the one-day PCT class that is part of this program.

July 24-25, 2017 in Alexandria, Virginia.  This program is sponsored by WIPO and by the the American Intellectual Property Law Association.  I will be one of the presenters for this program.

September 21-22, 2017 in Cary, North Carolina.  This program is sponsored by WIPO and by the North Carolina Bar Association.  I will be the presenter for this program.

On March 9, Ambassador Saja Majali of Jordan deposited the Instrument of Accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty with the International Bureau of WIPO. This means that the PCT will come into force for Jordan on June 9, 2017.

This brings to 152 the number of member States for the PCT.

The two-letter code for Jordan is “JO”.

As a reminder some PCT search fees will change today for US PCT filers.

The ISA/EP fee will drop 5.3%, to $1992.  As of today, for the first time in thirty-eight years, this will be cheaper than ISA/US (for large entities).

The ISA/KR fee will drop 5.4%, to $1114.  As before, the real bargain at ISA/KR is the cost of the second through n^th inventions will still only cost a couple of hundred dollars each.

The ISA/JP fee will drop 10.7%, to $1372.

The ISA/IL fee will drop 2.8%, to $911.

For a filer that counts the search fee price as a big factor in the selection of searching authority, these fee changes leave roughly unchanged the ranking of searching authorities by cost.

For a filer that uses EFS-Web or ePCT as the mechanism for e-filing of a PCT application, you do not need to worry about accidentally paying the wrong fee, because the e-filing system will automatically quote the correct fee.

There are still many other factors which might influence an applicant’s selection of International Searching Authority, as I summarize here.

Gary Smith of the PCT Learning Center will be teaching about the Patent Cooperation Treaty in Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 7.  You can sign up for the morning part only (“PCT Boot Camp”) or the afternoon part only (“PCT Strategies Session”) or both (“The Essential PCT”).

To learn more, or to register, click here.

The PCT Learning Center, with support from the World Intellectual Property Organization, will be sponsoring a seminar about the Patent Cooperation Treaty in San Francisco on Monday, March 13.  The presenters will be Gary Smith and yours truly.

You can sign up for the morning part only (“PCT Boot Camp”) or the afternoon part only (“PCT Strategies Session”) or both (“The Essential PCT”).

For more information, or to register, click here.