Patent Cooperation Treaty Collaborative Search and Examination Pilot Project Between the IP5 Offices, 30145-30147 [2018-13800]
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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices
(c) Acoustic Monitoring Report
Seattle DOT shall submit an Acoustic
Monitoring Report within 90 days after
completion of the in-water construction
work, expiration of the IHA (if issued),
or 60 days prior to the requested date of
issuance of any subsequent IHA,
whichever sooner. The report shall
provide details on the monitored piles,
method of installation, monitoring
equipment, and sound levels
documented during both the sound
source measurements and the
background monitoring. NMFS shall
have an opportunity to provide
comments on the report or changes in
monitoring for the second season, and if
NMFS has comments, Seattle DOT shall
address the comments and submit a
final report to NMFS within 30 days. If
no comments are received from NMFS
within 30 days, the draft report shall be
considered final. Any comments
received during that time shall be
addressed in full prior to finalization of
the report.
8. This Authorization may be
modified, suspended or withdrawn if
the holder fails to abide by the
conditions prescribed herein or if NMFS
determines the authorized taking is
having more than a negligible impact on
the species or stock of affected marine
mammals.
9. A copy of this Authorization must
be in the possession of each contractor
who performs the construction work at
the Pier 62 Project.
daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES
Request for Public Comments
We request comment on our analyses,
the proposed authorization, and any
other aspect of this Notice of Proposed
IHA for the proposed pile driving
activities by Seattle DOT. We also
request comment on the potential for
renewal of this proposed IHA as
described in the paragraph below.
Please include with your comments any
supporting data or literature citations to
help inform our final decision on the
request for MMPA authorization.
On a case-by-case basis, NMFS may
issue a subsequent one-year IHA
without additional notice when (1)
another year of identical or nearly
identical activities as described in the
Specified Activities section is planned
or (2) the activities would not be
completed by the time the IHA expires
and a subsequent IHA would allow for
completion of the activities beyond that
described in the Dates and Duration
section, provided all of the following
conditions are met:
• A request for renewal is received no
later than 60 days prior to expiration of
the current IHA.
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16:58 Jun 26, 2018
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• The request for renewal must
include the following:
(1) An explanation that the activities
to be conducted beyond the initial dates
either are identical to the previously
analyzed activities or include changes
so minor (e.g., reduction in pile size)
that the changes do not affect the
previous analyses, take estimates, or
mitigation and monitoring
requirements.
(2) A preliminary monitoring report
showing the results of the required
monitoring to date and an explanation
showing that the monitoring results do
not indicate impacts of a scale or nature
not previously analyzed or authorized.
• Upon review of the request for
renewal, the status of the affected
species or stocks, and any other
pertinent information, NMFS
determines that there are no more than
minor changes in the activities, the
mitigation and monitoring measures
remain the same and appropriate, and
the original findings remain valid.
Elaine T. Saiz,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Protected
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018–13803 Filed 6–26–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO–P–2018–0032]
Patent Cooperation Treaty
Collaborative Search and Examination
Pilot Project Between the IP5 Offices
United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO), the
European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan
Patent Office (JPO), the Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and
the State Intellectual Property Office of
the People’s Republic of China (SIPO),
referred to collectively as the IP5
Offices, will launch a pilot project on
Collaborative Search and Examination
(CS&E) under the Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT). This will be the third such
pilot. The USPTO, the EPO, and the
KIPO conducted two previous pilots in
2010 and in 2011–2012. The third pilot
is needed to further develop and test the
concept amongst all the IP5 Offices. In
particular, this IP5 pilot project aims at
assessing user interest for a CS&E
product and the expected efficiency
gains for the IP5 Offices.
DATES:
SUMMARY:
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30145
Pilot Effective date: July 1, 2018.
Duration: Requests to participate in
the PCT CS&E pilot project may be filed
with international applications filed
through the receiving Office of one of
the IP5 Offices or the International
Bureau of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) until June
30, 2020. During each year, the USPTO,
in its capacity as the main International
Searching Authority, will accept a total
of 50 international applications into the
pilot.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Inquiries regarding the handling of any
specific application participating in the
pilot may be directed to Daniel Hunter,
Director of International Work Sharing,
Planning, and Implementation, Office of
International Patent Cooperation, by
telephone at (571) 272–8050 or by email
to daniel.hunter@uspto.gov. Inquiries
concerning this notice may be directed
to Michael Neas, Deputy Director,
International Patent Legal
Administration, by phone (571) 272–
3289 or by email to michael.neas@
uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Concept
The concept of CS&E under the PCT
refers to the collaboration of examiners
from different International Searching
Authorities in different regions and with
different working languages on one
international application for the
establishment of an international search
report and written opinion under PCT
Chapter I, which, although remaining
the opinion of the chosen International
Search Authority, is based on
contributions from all participating IP5
Offices.
Under the pilot project, the examiner
of the IP5 Office from the chosen
International Searching Authority under
PCT Rule 35 for a given international
application (‘‘the main examiner’’)
works on the application by conducting
the search and examination and by
establishing a provisional international
search report and written opinion.
These provisional work products are
transmitted to examiners from the other
participating IP5 Offices in their
capacity as an International Searching
Authority (‘‘the peer examiners’’). Each
peer examiner provides the main
examiner with his contribution, in light
of the provisional international search
report and written opinion. The final
international search report and written
opinion are subsequently established by
the main examiner after having taken
into consideration the contributions of
the peer examiners. Further details
regarding the implementation of the
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30146
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices
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CS&E concept within the framework of
this pilot project are provided below.
II. Framework
Under the pilot project, with a view
to assessing the users’ interest for a
CS&E product, international
applications processed under the
collaborative scheme will be selected by
applicants (‘‘applicant-driven
approach’’), whereas, under the two
previous pilot projects, the applications
were selected by the participating IP5
Offices.
Applicants wishing to participate in
the pilot project must submit a request
for participation in the pilot on a
standard participation form and file it
together with the international
application at the receiving Office of
one of the IP5 Offices or the
International Bureau. The participation
form is available in all official languages
of the IP5 Offices on WIPO’s website at
https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/filing/
cse.html.
For international applications filed in
English, requests for participation in the
pilot may be filed beginning July 1,
2018. Each applicant will be able to
select only a limited number of
international applications for inclusion
in the program.
Initially, only international
applications filed in English will be
accepted into the pilot. Eventually,
international authorities that work in
languages other than English will accept
international applications filed in those
languages into the pilot. Each main
International Searching Authority that
will accept international applications
filed in a language other than English
will inform the applicants accordingly
by a communication published on its
website. Such communication will
specify the additional languages that
will be accepted by a main International
Searching Authority for the purposes of
this pilot and the date as of which
requests for participation in the pilot
may be filed in such languages. The
USPTO in its capacity as an
International Searching Authority only
accepts applications in English.
The receiving Office will transmit the
participation form to the International
Bureau and the main International
Searching Authority as part of the
record copy and search copy,
respectively. Upon receipt of the search
copy, the main International Searching
Authority will determine if the request
for participation in the pilot may be
accepted based on whether the
applicable requirements detailed below
in part III are met. The International
Searching Authority will notify the
applicant and the International Bureau
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16:58 Jun 26, 2018
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of the acceptance or refusal of the
request for participation in the pilot
using Form PCT/ISA/224
(Communication in Cases for Which No
Other Form Is Applicable).
The main International Searching
Authority will perform the search and
examination as it would for any other
international application not processed
under this pilot. It will establish a
provisional international search report
(Form PCT/ISA/210) (or, where
appropriate, declaration of nonestablishment of international search
report (Form PCT/ISA/203)) and written
opinion (Form PCT/ISA/237), and,
where applicable, a record of the search
strategy. The form and content of the
record of the search strategy will
generally be according to the current
practice of each International Searching
Authority.
The main International Searching
Authority will transmit the above
mentioned provisional work products to
the peer International Searching
Authorities, where a peer examiner will
prepare a contribution to the final work
product, taking into consideration the
provisional work products prepared by
the main International Searching
Authority and performing additional
searching to the extent deemed
necessary.
With respect to the handling of cases
lacking unity of invention by the peer
International Searching Authorities, a
principle of the first invention will be
followed. This means that each main
International Searching Authority
proceeds with the non-unity procedure
according to its own standard practice,
while the provisional work products
submitted to the peer International
Searching Authorities are based only on
the invention first mentioned in the
claims as determined by the main
International Searching Authority. Peer
examiners will focus their searches on
what they determine to be the first
invention, regardless of whether the
provisional work products are directed
to one or more inventions.
Each peer International Searching
Authority will transmit its contribution
to the main International Searching
Authority using a standard peer
contribution form. Depending on its
practice, each peer International
Searching Authority will either record
its contribution directly on the peer
contribution form or use the peer
contribution form as a cover sheet for
the standard forms PCT/ISA/210 and
PCT/ISA/237. Peer contribution forms
and peer contributions attached to such
forms, if any, will be made available as
separate documents in WIPO’s
PATENTSCOPE.
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The main International Searching
Authority will consider the
contributions received from the peer
International Searching Authorities and
prepare the final international search
report (Form PCT/ISA/210) (or, where
appropriate, declaration of nonestablishment of international search
report (Form PCT/ISA/203)) and written
opinion (Form PCT/ISA/237) in light of
these contributions. The main
International Searching Authority will
strive to establish these final work
products within the time limit under
PCT Rule 42.1; however, compliance
with this time limit may not be
guaranteed due to the collaborative
nature of the pilot project, which
inherently results in additional
administrative burdens. The final work
products will be transmitted to the
applicant and the International Bureau.
Final CS&E work products will be
identified, either by a direct indication
in box V of Form PCT/ISA/237 or at the
top of a supplemental sheet referenced
in said box, as the result of the
collaboration under the pilot, which
does not necessarily reflect the opinions
of all IP5 Offices. Only the final CS&E
work product may serve as a basis for
requesting participation in a Patent
Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot
program.
All exchanges of documents and
information among the IP5 Offices will
be carried out via an ePCT-based
platform allowing a secure and
confidential data transmission. This
ePCT-based platform is provided and
maintained by the International Bureau.
In this pilot project, the international
search fee charged by each IP5 Office
remains unchanged. Therefore,
applicants participating in this pilot
will pay only the standard fee for a PCT
Chapter I search at the chosen
International Searching Authority.
However, if following this pilot the
CS&E product is implemented as a
regular product under the PCT,
applicants will have to pay a specific fee
for such product (the CS&E fee). The
maximum prospective amount of the
CS&E fee is the aggregated amount of
the search fees of the participating
International Searching Authorities plus
an administrative fee to cover the
collaboration costs.
Towards the end of the pilot project,
participating applicants will be asked to
complete a questionnaire about their
interest for a regular CS&E product
under the PCT. Responses to the
questionnaire will be taken into account
by the IP5 Offices in the assessment of
the pilot project.
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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices
III. Requirements and Limitations for
Participation
Applicants who would like to
participate in the pilot project must be
aware of both the following
requirements to be met by applicants
and the following limitations set by the
IP5 Offices.
A. Requirements To Be Met by
Applicants
The following requirements must be
met by applicants wishing to participate
in the pilot project:
(a) The request for participation in the
pilot must be submitted on the standard
participation form and filed together
with the international application.
(b) The participation form and the
international application must be filed
at the receiving Office of one of the IP5
Offices or at the International Bureau as
receiving Office, and the applicant must
select one of the IP5 Offices as the main
International Searching Authority under
PCT Rule 35. For example, U.S.
applicants filing with the USPTO or the
International Bureau as receiving Office
may select the USPTO, the EPO, the
KIPO, or the JPO as International
Searching Authority, subject to certain
limitations as described in the PCT
Applicant’s Guide, Annex C/US.
(c) Where the participation form and
the international application are filed
with the USPTO, they must be filed in
electronic form via the USPTO’s EFSWeb system. The participation form
must be loaded into EFS-Web as a
separate document using document
description ‘‘Request to Participate in
PCT CS&E Pilot.’’ This is true even
where the participation form is prepared
using WIPO’s ePCT system since EFSWeb only extracts the PCT Request form
and Fee Calculation sheet from ePCT or
PCT Safe zip files.
(d) The participation form and the
international application must be filed
in English when they are filed with the
USPTO. As noted above, the other IP5
Offices will initially only accept
applications filed in English and will
announce when they are prepared to
accept applications in languages other
than English.
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B. Limitations Set by the IP5 Offices
16:58 Jun 26, 2018
Jkt 244001
IV. Duration
The pilot project is divided into two
phases, a preparatory phase and an
operational phase. The preparatory
phase started on June 2, 2016, and was
dedicated to the administrative and
practical preparations required for a
smooth functioning of the pilot. The
operational phase will start on July 1,
2018, and will be dedicated to the
processing of applications under the
collaborative scheme, the monitoring of
applications for evaluation purposes,
and the assessment of the outcome of
the pilot. The operational phase will last
for a period of three years ending on
July 1, 2021, and will include an
evaluation of the impact of the pilot on
examination during the subsequent
national/regional stages. Requests for
participation in the pilot will be
accepted only during the first two years
of the operational phase, i.e., from July
1, 2018, to June 30, 2020.
Dated: June 21, 2018.
Andrei Iancu,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual
Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2018–13800 Filed 6–26–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–16–P
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
The following limitations related to
organizational aspects of the pilot must
be complied with for the main
International Searching Authority to
accept a request for participation in the
pilot:
(a) The applicant must not have had
ten international applications accepted
in the pilot by the same main
International Searching Authority.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
(b) The main International Searching
Authority must not have accepted 100
international applications into the pilot.
The USPTO, in its capacity as the main
International Searching Authority, will
accept 50 applications during the first
year of the pilot, that is from July 1,
2018, to June 30, 2019, and 50
applications during the second year of
the pilot, that is from July 1, 2019, to
June 30, 2020.
(c) The main International Searching
Authority must not determine that there
is a defect in the application (e.g., the
application does not contain a sequence
listing portion of the description and/or
a copy of a sequence listing in computer
readable form as provided for in the
Administrative Instructions under the
PCT) impeding the processing of the
application according to the timeline for
the collaborative process.
Office of the Secretary
[Docket ID DOD–2018–OS–0039]
Manual for Courts-Martial; Proposed
Amendments
Joint Service Committee on
Military Justice (JSC), Department of
Defense.
AGENCY:
PO 00000
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30147
Notice of proposed amendments
to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United
States (2016 ed.) and notice of public
meeting.
ACTION:
The Department of Defense
requests comments on proposed
changes to the Manual for CourtsMartial, United States (2016 ed.) (MCM).
The proposed changes concern the rules
of procedure and evidence applicable in
trials by courts-martial as well as
amendments to portions of the MCM
discussing the punitive articles of the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. The
approval authority for these changes is
the President. These proposed changes
have not been coordinated within the
Department of Defense under DoD
Directive 5500.01, ‘‘Preparing,
Processing and Coordinating
Legislation, Executive Orders,
Proclamations, Views Letters, and
Testimony,’’ June 15, 2007, and do not
constitute the official position of the
Department of Defense, the Military
Departments, or any other Government
agency.
DATES: Comments on the proposed
changes must be received no later than
August 27, 2018. A public meeting for
comments will be held on July 11, 2018,
at 1:30 p.m. in the United States Court
of Appeals for the Armed Forces
building, 450 E Street NW, Washington
DC 20442–0001.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by docket number and title,
by any of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Department of Defense, Office
of the Deputy Chief Management
Officer, Directorate for Oversight and
Compliance, 4800 Mark Center Drive,
Mailbox #24, Suite 08D09, Alexandria,
VA 22350–1700.
Instructions: All submissions received
must include the agency name and
docket number for this Federal Register
document. The general policy for
comments and other submissions from
members of the public is to make these
submissions available for public
viewing on the internet at https://
www.regulations.gov as they are
received without change, including any
personal identifiers or contact
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Lieutenant Alexandra Nica, JAGC, USN,
Executive Secretary, JSC, (202) 685–
7058, alexandra.nica@navy.mil. The JSC
website is located at https://
jsc.defense.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This
notice is provided in accordance with
SUMMARY:
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 124 (Wednesday, June 27, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30145-30147]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13800]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO-P-2018-0032]
Patent Cooperation Treaty Collaborative Search and Examination
Pilot Project Between the IP5 Offices
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the
European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the State Intellectual Property
Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), referred to
collectively as the IP5 Offices, will launch a pilot project on
Collaborative Search and Examination (CS&E) under the Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This will be the third such pilot. The USPTO,
the EPO, and the KIPO conducted two previous pilots in 2010 and in
2011-2012. The third pilot is needed to further develop and test the
concept amongst all the IP5 Offices. In particular, this IP5 pilot
project aims at assessing user interest for a CS&E product and the
expected efficiency gains for the IP5 Offices.
DATES:
Pilot Effective date: July 1, 2018.
Duration: Requests to participate in the PCT CS&E pilot project may
be filed with international applications filed through the receiving
Office of one of the IP5 Offices or the International Bureau of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) until June 30, 2020.
During each year, the USPTO, in its capacity as the main International
Searching Authority, will accept a total of 50 international
applications into the pilot.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Inquiries regarding the handling of
any specific application participating in the pilot may be directed to
Daniel Hunter, Director of International Work Sharing, Planning, and
Implementation, Office of International Patent Cooperation, by
telephone at (571) 272-8050 or by email to [email protected].
Inquiries concerning this notice may be directed to Michael Neas,
Deputy Director, International Patent Legal Administration, by phone
(571) 272-3289 or by email to [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Concept
The concept of CS&E under the PCT refers to the collaboration of
examiners from different International Searching Authorities in
different regions and with different working languages on one
international application for the establishment of an international
search report and written opinion under PCT Chapter I, which, although
remaining the opinion of the chosen International Search Authority, is
based on contributions from all participating IP5 Offices.
Under the pilot project, the examiner of the IP5 Office from the
chosen International Searching Authority under PCT Rule 35 for a given
international application (``the main examiner'') works on the
application by conducting the search and examination and by
establishing a provisional international search report and written
opinion. These provisional work products are transmitted to examiners
from the other participating IP5 Offices in their capacity as an
International Searching Authority (``the peer examiners''). Each peer
examiner provides the main examiner with his contribution, in light of
the provisional international search report and written opinion. The
final international search report and written opinion are subsequently
established by the main examiner after having taken into consideration
the contributions of the peer examiners. Further details regarding the
implementation of the
[[Page 30146]]
CS&E concept within the framework of this pilot project are provided
below.
II. Framework
Under the pilot project, with a view to assessing the users'
interest for a CS&E product, international applications processed under
the collaborative scheme will be selected by applicants (``applicant-
driven approach''), whereas, under the two previous pilot projects, the
applications were selected by the participating IP5 Offices.
Applicants wishing to participate in the pilot project must submit
a request for participation in the pilot on a standard participation
form and file it together with the international application at the
receiving Office of one of the IP5 Offices or the International Bureau.
The participation form is available in all official languages of the
IP5 Offices on WIPO's website at https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/filing/cse.html.
For international applications filed in English, requests for
participation in the pilot may be filed beginning July 1, 2018. Each
applicant will be able to select only a limited number of international
applications for inclusion in the program.
Initially, only international applications filed in English will be
accepted into the pilot. Eventually, international authorities that
work in languages other than English will accept international
applications filed in those languages into the pilot. Each main
International Searching Authority that will accept international
applications filed in a language other than English will inform the
applicants accordingly by a communication published on its website.
Such communication will specify the additional languages that will be
accepted by a main International Searching Authority for the purposes
of this pilot and the date as of which requests for participation in
the pilot may be filed in such languages. The USPTO in its capacity as
an International Searching Authority only accepts applications in
English.
The receiving Office will transmit the participation form to the
International Bureau and the main International Searching Authority as
part of the record copy and search copy, respectively. Upon receipt of
the search copy, the main International Searching Authority will
determine if the request for participation in the pilot may be accepted
based on whether the applicable requirements detailed below in part III
are met. The International Searching Authority will notify the
applicant and the International Bureau of the acceptance or refusal of
the request for participation in the pilot using Form PCT/ISA/224
(Communication in Cases for Which No Other Form Is Applicable).
The main International Searching Authority will perform the search
and examination as it would for any other international application not
processed under this pilot. It will establish a provisional
international search report (Form PCT/ISA/210) (or, where appropriate,
declaration of non-establishment of international search report (Form
PCT/ISA/203)) and written opinion (Form PCT/ISA/237), and, where
applicable, a record of the search strategy. The form and content of
the record of the search strategy will generally be according to the
current practice of each International Searching Authority.
The main International Searching Authority will transmit the above
mentioned provisional work products to the peer International Searching
Authorities, where a peer examiner will prepare a contribution to the
final work product, taking into consideration the provisional work
products prepared by the main International Searching Authority and
performing additional searching to the extent deemed necessary.
With respect to the handling of cases lacking unity of invention by
the peer International Searching Authorities, a principle of the first
invention will be followed. This means that each main International
Searching Authority proceeds with the non-unity procedure according to
its own standard practice, while the provisional work products
submitted to the peer International Searching Authorities are based
only on the invention first mentioned in the claims as determined by
the main International Searching Authority. Peer examiners will focus
their searches on what they determine to be the first invention,
regardless of whether the provisional work products are directed to one
or more inventions.
Each peer International Searching Authority will transmit its
contribution to the main International Searching Authority using a
standard peer contribution form. Depending on its practice, each peer
International Searching Authority will either record its contribution
directly on the peer contribution form or use the peer contribution
form as a cover sheet for the standard forms PCT/ISA/210 and PCT/ISA/
237. Peer contribution forms and peer contributions attached to such
forms, if any, will be made available as separate documents in WIPO's
PATENTSCOPE.
The main International Searching Authority will consider the
contributions received from the peer International Searching
Authorities and prepare the final international search report (Form
PCT/ISA/210) (or, where appropriate, declaration of non-establishment
of international search report (Form PCT/ISA/203)) and written opinion
(Form PCT/ISA/237) in light of these contributions. The main
International Searching Authority will strive to establish these final
work products within the time limit under PCT Rule 42.1; however,
compliance with this time limit may not be guaranteed due to the
collaborative nature of the pilot project, which inherently results in
additional administrative burdens. The final work products will be
transmitted to the applicant and the International Bureau.
Final CS&E work products will be identified, either by a direct
indication in box V of Form PCT/ISA/237 or at the top of a supplemental
sheet referenced in said box, as the result of the collaboration under
the pilot, which does not necessarily reflect the opinions of all IP5
Offices. Only the final CS&E work product may serve as a basis for
requesting participation in a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot
program.
All exchanges of documents and information among the IP5 Offices
will be carried out via an ePCT-based platform allowing a secure and
confidential data transmission. This ePCT-based platform is provided
and maintained by the International Bureau.
In this pilot project, the international search fee charged by each
IP5 Office remains unchanged. Therefore, applicants participating in
this pilot will pay only the standard fee for a PCT Chapter I search at
the chosen International Searching Authority. However, if following
this pilot the CS&E product is implemented as a regular product under
the PCT, applicants will have to pay a specific fee for such product
(the CS&E fee). The maximum prospective amount of the CS&E fee is the
aggregated amount of the search fees of the participating International
Searching Authorities plus an administrative fee to cover the
collaboration costs.
Towards the end of the pilot project, participating applicants will
be asked to complete a questionnaire about their interest for a regular
CS&E product under the PCT. Responses to the questionnaire will be
taken into account by the IP5 Offices in the assessment of the pilot
project.
[[Page 30147]]
III. Requirements and Limitations for Participation
Applicants who would like to participate in the pilot project must
be aware of both the following requirements to be met by applicants and
the following limitations set by the IP5 Offices.
A. Requirements To Be Met by Applicants
The following requirements must be met by applicants wishing to
participate in the pilot project:
(a) The request for participation in the pilot must be submitted on
the standard participation form and filed together with the
international application.
(b) The participation form and the international application must
be filed at the receiving Office of one of the IP5 Offices or at the
International Bureau as receiving Office, and the applicant must select
one of the IP5 Offices as the main International Searching Authority
under PCT Rule 35. For example, U.S. applicants filing with the USPTO
or the International Bureau as receiving Office may select the USPTO,
the EPO, the KIPO, or the JPO as International Searching Authority,
subject to certain limitations as described in the PCT Applicant's
Guide, Annex C/US.
(c) Where the participation form and the international application
are filed with the USPTO, they must be filed in electronic form via the
USPTO's EFS-Web system. The participation form must be loaded into EFS-
Web as a separate document using document description ``Request to
Participate in PCT CS&E Pilot.'' This is true even where the
participation form is prepared using WIPO's ePCT system since EFS-Web
only extracts the PCT Request form and Fee Calculation sheet from ePCT
or PCT Safe zip files.
(d) The participation form and the international application must
be filed in English when they are filed with the USPTO. As noted above,
the other IP5 Offices will initially only accept applications filed in
English and will announce when they are prepared to accept applications
in languages other than English.
B. Limitations Set by the IP5 Offices
The following limitations related to organizational aspects of the
pilot must be complied with for the main International Searching
Authority to accept a request for participation in the pilot:
(a) The applicant must not have had ten international applications
accepted in the pilot by the same main International Searching
Authority.
(b) The main International Searching Authority must not have
accepted 100 international applications into the pilot. The USPTO, in
its capacity as the main International Searching Authority, will accept
50 applications during the first year of the pilot, that is from July
1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, and 50 applications during the second year
of the pilot, that is from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020.
(c) The main International Searching Authority must not determine
that there is a defect in the application (e.g., the application does
not contain a sequence listing portion of the description and/or a copy
of a sequence listing in computer readable form as provided for in the
Administrative Instructions under the PCT) impeding the processing of
the application according to the timeline for the collaborative
process.
IV. Duration
The pilot project is divided into two phases, a preparatory phase
and an operational phase. The preparatory phase started on June 2,
2016, and was dedicated to the administrative and practical
preparations required for a smooth functioning of the pilot. The
operational phase will start on July 1, 2018, and will be dedicated to
the processing of applications under the collaborative scheme, the
monitoring of applications for evaluation purposes, and the assessment
of the outcome of the pilot. The operational phase will last for a
period of three years ending on July 1, 2021, and will include an
evaluation of the impact of the pilot on examination during the
subsequent national/regional stages. Requests for participation in the
pilot will be accepted only during the first two years of the
operational phase, i.e., from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020.
Dated: June 21, 2018.
Andrei Iancu,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2018-13800 Filed 6-26-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P
