The PCT in Latin America: its Role and Future Recent developments of the PCT system in Latin America AIPPI Forum Buenos Aires, October 11, 2009
Outline The PCT in Latin America The Role of the PCT The Future of the PCT
The PCT in Latin America
PCT Statistics 180000 160000 140000 Jan to June 09 120000 100000 80000 60000 40000 WIPO believes there may be a potential fall of 5% overall in 2009 US: -15% CN: +20% GB: +6% JP: +11% 20000 0 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08
=PCT 142 PCT States Albania Algeria Angola Antigua and Barbuda Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Costa Rica Côte d'ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic People's Republic of Korea Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Finland France, Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Lao People s Dem Rep. Latvia Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritania Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Namibia Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norway Oman Papua New Guinea Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Republic of Korea Republic of Moldova Romania Russian Federation Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Sao Tomé e Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Swaziland St. Kitts and Nevis Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Thailand (24 Dec. 2009) The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United Republic of Tanzania United States of America Uzbekistan Viet Nam Yugoslavia Zambia Zimbabwe
=PCT Growth in PCT Latin American States Brazil................................... 9 April 1978 Mexico..................................1 January 1995 Cuba....................................16 July 1996 Costa Rica............................... 3 August 1999 Colombia................................ 28 February 2001 Ecuador.................................. 7 May 2001 Nicaragua................................ 6 March 2003 Honduras................................ 20 June 2006 El Salvador............................... 17 August 2006 Guatemala................................14 October 2006 Dominican Republic......................... 28 May 2007 Chile..................................... 2 June 2009 Peru......................................6 June 2009
Examples of PCT Filings in Latin American States 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Brazil 278 271 333 396 444 Mexico 118 141 180 187 207 Cuba 18 11 21 22 11 Costa Rica 6 4 6 3 8 Colombia 22 23 29 44 39 Ecuador 9 1 7 2 4 Guatemala -- -- -- 1 15 Dominican Republic -- -- -- 2 5 Chile -- -- -- -- -- 13
Examples of National phase entries in Latin American States 2006 2007 2008 Brazil 18,057 Mexico 13,887 Cuba 210 Colombia 1,747 Ecuador 794 (Source: The International Patent System: Yearly Review, 2008)
Latin American States still outside PCT Argentina Bolivia Panama Paraguay Uruguay Venezuela
The Role of the PCT
What is the Role of the PCT? 1) to be a tool for use by those who at least want to investigate the possibility of protection for their innovations in several countries a) PCT can do nothing directly to foster innovation, but countries can, and should, with pro-innovation policies 2) to be a worksharing/duplication-reduction vehicle, thus increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness 3) to contribute high quality but non-binding search and examination results for use by national offices in the national grant procedure
The Future of the PCT
Practical PCT resources Private file inspection Document upload system pilot under way Digital Access Service for priority documents PCT webinars New resources for PCT applicants PCT Caselaw database being developed PatentScope enhancements Full file contents available for IAs filed on or after 1 Jan. 2009 National phase entry data now for 36 countries (Singapore and Viet Nam recently added) Searchable national collections ARIPO, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico, Vietnam, Israel, PCT, All 10 query language choices, 10 interface language choices
PatentScope
Certain national collections now searchable via PatentScope
A PCT Vision for the Future (1) Realizations in late 2008: In the vision of its founders, PCT was created to increase patent office worksharing and to reduce duplication of work PCT can and should be used more effectively in order to help it contribute better to solutions to the problems facing the international patent system PCT is not currently reaching its potential: NOT because of legal deficiencies because the International Authorities are not using it as intended PPH s existence proves that worksharing and confidence are possible Wrote a paper setting out a PCT Roadmap
A PCT Vision for the Future (2) Under the Roadmap, PCT Offices but in particular ISAs and IPEAs should: Fully implement their PCT obligations including the obligation to make their PCT workproducts as good as or better than their national workproducts Minimize duplication within Offices Minimize duplication between Offices Ensure that practices, fee structures and workproducts encourage work-sharing and duplication reduction Withdraw incompatibility notifications (between PCT and national law/practice) (some 150 of these currently)
A PCT Vision for the Future (3) The PCT should be made more useful and attractive by Reviving IPE devise appropriate national phase incentives for use and for its effective use such as fee incentives, PPH effect, or both tied to positive IPRPs allow for submission of third party observations include top-up searches to find secret prior art have all IPEAs issue at least one WO before any negative IPRP Building on the recently-inaugurated supplementary international search system, and moving towards collaborative/multi-office PCT search and examination
A PCT Vision for the Future (4) Discuss with member states: Incentives to encourage PCT applicants to make full use of the PCT international phase (resolving defects, amending to resolve potential patentability issues, etc.), for example: Fee reductions Accelerated/simplified national processing
The way forward: A PCT Vision for the Future (5) 23 February 2009: informal discussions with Heads of Offices of 20 biggest PCT Offices, including all ISAs 2 March 2009: informal discussions with certain user organizations and representatives of some of largest PCT filers 16-18 March 2009: Meeting of International Authorities 4-8 May 2009: PCT Working Group tasked with doing a study on background for this proposal, problems facing the PCT, and options for addressing them September 2009: PCT Assembly, noting the WG s discussions 2010 Working Group
PPH and the PCT Trilateral offices will begin a pilot project in January 2010 in which positive PCT search reports and written opinions will be a basis for Patent Prosecution Highway requests in the Trilateral offices To be announced formally at the November 2009 Trilateral Conference in Kyoto