PCT Reform
Backlogs of work in many of the major patent offices around the world are currently posing serious challenges to the patent granting system worldwide.
The PCT system has the potential to be a key tool in helping to address these challenges by reducing global duplication of work and raising patent quality. However, the current PCT system has many shortcomings - it is often slow and inefficient and there is a general lack of confidence in the quality of the work performed in the international phase, which often leads to unnecessary duplication of work in the national phase.
In January 2009, Francis Gurry, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a "roadmap" of the type of work he believes is required to address the problems with the current PCT system. The roadmap proposes a number of ideas for reform including:
- Collaborative international search
- Introduction of a system for filing third party observations in the international phase
- Reform of the International Preliminary Examination procedure
- Introduction of a top-up search in the international phase
Several of these ideas are currently being taken forward in the form of pilot projects.
The IPO is keen to contribute to this work and we have used the proposals in the roadmap as a basis for our own investigations. We conducted a public consultation last year to obtain our users' views on PCT reform.
One outcome of this work was the launch of our PCT (UK) Fast Track service on 28 May 2010. This service provides an incentive for PCT applicants to make full use of the international phase by amending their application in the international phase to overcome any objections raised, thus reducing duplication of work by designated/elected states in the national phase and helping to address the problem of patent backlogs.
What is the PCT?
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) was established in 1970, and provides a unified procedure for obtaining patent protection in over 140 countries worldwide via a single application. A PCT application is initially processed as a single application in an 'international phase' during which the application is searched and, optionally, examined. After 30 months the applicant chooses in which countries they wish to pursue the application and the application is processed and granted according to the national laws of each of those countries (the 'national phase').