E PCT/WG/12/25 PROV. ORIGINAL: ENGLISH DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Working Group Twelfth Session Geneva, June 11 to 14, 2019 DRAFT REPORT prepared by the Secretariat 1. The Patent Cooperation Treaty Working Group held its twelfth session in Geneva from June 11 to 14, 2019. 2. The following members of the Working Group were represented at the session: (i) the following Member States of the International Patent Cooperation Union (PCT Union): Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe (60); and (ii) the following intergovernmental organizations: the European Patent Office (EPO), the Nordic Patent Institute (NPI), the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI) (3). 3. The following Member States of the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Union) participated in the session as an observer: Guyana, Jamaica, Pakistan (3). 4. The following intergovernmental organizations were represented by observers: African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO), Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC Patent Office) (3). PCT/WG/12/25 Prov. page 2 5. The following international non-governmental organizations were represented by observers: Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA), Institute of Professional Representatives Before the European Patent Office (epi), International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), International Institute for Intellectual Property Management (I3PM), Union of European Practitioners in Industrial Property (UNION) (6). 6. The following national non-governmental organizations were represented by observers: Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), Japan Patent Attorneys Association (JPAA) ( 2) 7. The list of participants is contained in Annex II. OPENING OF THE SESSION 8. Mr. Claus Matthes, Senior Director, PCT Legal and International Affairs Department, Patents and Technology Sector, opened the session and welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director General of WIPO. Mr. Michael Richardson (WIPO) acted as Secretary to the Working Group. 9. Mr. Matthes reported on the performance of the PCT in 2018. In its fortieth year of operations, the PCT had another very successful year, confirming its role as the central node of the international patent system and the main choice of innovators when seeking global patent protection. In 2018, the number of international applications rose by 3.9 per cent to 253,000. This was the ninth consecutive year of growth and the first time that filings had exceeded more than a quarter of a million applications in a single year. In fact, more applications were filed in 2018 than the total filings over the first 15 years of the PCT. Mr. Matthes congratulated the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, which had started operations as the twenty-third International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authority on May 20, 2019 and wished it well in this function. In terms of key figures for 2018, in addition to the rise in the total number of international applications filed, PCT applications were filed in a record number of 127 different countries, one more than in 2017. There were also more than 54,000 different applicants, an increase of 3.8 per cent over the previous year. In addition, more women were involved as inventors with 32.6 per cent of all international applications naming at least one women as an inventor and women now represented 17.1 per cent of the named inventors in PCT applications. The top country of origin of applicants continued to be the United States of America with about 56,142 applications, followed by applicants from China, who filed 9.1 per cent more applications than in 2017, giving a total of 53,345, a significant but lower growth rate than in recent years. Applicants from Japan came in third with 49,702 international applications, nearly two and half times more than applications filed by applicants from Germany, in fourth place with 19,883 applicants. In terms of national phase entries, after a slight decline in 2016, numbers picked up again, reaching an estimated 630,000 national phase entries in 2017, up by 2.3 per cent. The “market share” of PCT national phase entries in worldwide non-resident patent filings (compared to direct Paris Convention filings) increased by one percentage point to 57.3 per cent in 2017, which is very similar to the market share the PCT held two years earlier in 2015, following a drop in 2016. 10. Mr. Matthes continued by referring to the full agenda of the session, which, as in previous years, gave positive indicator for the health of the system and its importance to stakeholders. Several documents set out proposals for changes to the legal framework aimed at providing further safeguards for applicants, such as in the case of erroneously filed elements and parts (that the Working Group had been discussing for the past seven years), the unavailability of electronic means of communications offered by Offices and when errors were made in the request form. A number of agenda items related to PCT fees. Except for the document on the netting of PCT fees, the other agenda items relating to fees all dealt with the important issue of “cost and accessibility” to the PCT System by certain groups of applicants. First, there was the issue of an update of the lists of States whose applicants were eligible for fee reductions under PCT/WG/12/25 Prov. page 3 the Schedule of Fees, as well as the review of the criteria to grant such fee reductions, as required to be carried out every five years. Second, the Working Group was invited to continue its discussions on the proposal by Brazil to offer fee reductions for universities of both developing and developed countries, based on two documents prepared by the International Bureau. The first of these documents summarized the feedback received in response to a Circular that the International Bureau had issued to consult on issues related to the proposal by Brazil. The second of these documents addressed some of the implementation issues, including a concrete proposal for a possible amendment of the PCT Schedule of Fees, should there be agreement to introduce fee reductions for universities. A number of other agenda items were broadly linked by the common desire to enhance the cooperation aim of the Treaty that formed the basis of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. These items included the proposal by Singapore to improve access by national Offices to certain documents held in the file of the International Preliminary Examining Authority, for the benefit of examiners in national phase proceedings, and the proposal by India to broaden the choices for applicants as far as competent International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities were concerned. Other agenda items, such as the document on PCT online services and the document on electronic communications between applicants and Offices, focused on how we could use the digital environment to further the cooperation between Offices, the International Bureau and users of the PCT system. Finally, there were several agenda items relating to technical assistance for applicants and Offices from developing and least developed countries that together made up the majority of PCT Contracting States: an update on technical assistance activities carried out in 2018 and 2019 to date; an introduction of the Inventor Assistance Program (by the Patent Law Division at the International Bureau); and two items relating to the training of examiners. ELECTION OF A CHAIR AND TWO VICE-CHAIRS 11. The Working Group unanimously elected Mr. Victor Portelli (Australia) as Chair and Mr. Reza Dehghani (Islamic Republic of Iran) as Vice-Chair for the session. There were no nominations for a second Vice-Chair. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 12. The Working Group adopted the revised draft agenda as proposed in document PCT/WG/12/1 Prov. 2. PCT STATISTICS 13. The Working Group noted a presentation by the International Bureau on the most recent PCT statistics1. MEETING OF INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES UNDER THE PCT: REPORT ON THE TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION 14. Discussions were based on document PCT/WG/12/2. 15. The Delegation of the United Kingdom welcomed the continuing discussions by the Quality Subgroup of the Meeting of International Authorities; as an effective way of raising quality, Offices needed to share information and best practices in quality management. While IT constraints prevented the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) from sharing its search strategies, the Delegation recognized the importance of this practice and was keen to participate in any future survey on this matter. Moreover, the Delegation believed that the opportunity for national Offices to provide feedback on work in the international phase was