The Patent Cooperation Treaty has been amended with effect from April 1, 2002 to provide that it will no longer be necessary to file a request for international preliminary examination to defer the filing of national and regional phase applications to 30 months from the PCT filing date or, if claimed, the priority date. This will enable those applicants who have requested international preliminary examination solely for the purpose of delaying national phase entry to do so without the need to pay the examination fees. Those who wish to have such examination carried out may continue to do so. In some countries the 20-month term is part of the national legislation and unless the legislation is repealed the 20-month term will continue to apply for such countries. Countries have until January 31, 2002 in which to advise WIPO as to whether such change in national law is required and whether it will be effected by April 1, 2002. In the U.S., the patent regulations will have to be amended before this change can be implemented. Clients are advised to continue to docket the 19-month date until each member country no longer requires that a demand for international preliminary examination be filed to defer the term for national and regional phase filings.

Starting January 2, 2002, applicants have been able to enter the European regional phase at the EPO within 31 months from the date of filing of the PCT application or, if priority has been claimed, from the priority date, regardless of whether or not a demand for international preliminary examination has been made.

However, as of the date of publication of this Newsletter, WIPO had already received notifications from Offices of the following countries that their national laws require amendment in order to bring this change in effect: Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea (South), Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia and Zambia. This means that if no Demand for International Preliminary Examination is filed, then the deadline date for entering the national stage in these countries will continue to be 20 months from the PCT filing date or, if claimed, the priority date (unless their national laws already permit entry after 20 months). As these countries bring their national laws into alignment with the amendments made to the PCT, this bifurcated arrangement will disappear. At present, it is not possible to forecast by when all of these countries will have amended their national laws in this regard.