The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT): Trends, Challenges and the Future “Hot topics in Foreign Patent Procurement and Enforcement” 25 th Annual ABA IPL Conference—April 8, 2010

PCT Trends PCT Challenges The Future of the PCT Outline

PCT Trends

More countries… PCT Trends

=PCT 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 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 142 PCT States

More countries… More applications… (note where the growth is coming from) PCT Trends

PCT Statistics (estimated 2009) fall of 4.5% overall in 2009

International applications received in 2009 by country of origin (estimated) China overtakes France for the first time (and files only 120 less than KR) US: -11.4% JP: +3.6% DE: -11.2% KR: +2.1% CN: +29.7% SE: -11.3% CA: -11.7% IL: -17.2%

International applications received in 2009 by country of origin (estimated) –the next 16 Goes from 1,423 (ES) to 185 (MX) Of note: ES: +2.4% DK: +3.8% AT: +12.4% BE: -8.7% IN: -28.9% SG: +5.5% RU: -29.1% NZ: -26.5% MY: +6.3% MX: -13.1%

More countries… More applications… (and note where the growth is coming from) More ISAs PCT Trends

The ISAs are the following 17 offices: –Australia –Austria –Brazil –Canada –China –Egypt (hoping to begin operating April 2010) –Finland –India (not yet operating) –Israel (not yet operating) –Japan –Republic of Korea –Russian Federation –Spain –Sweden –United States of America –European Patent Office –Nordic Patent Institute The PCT International Searching Authorities

More countries… More applications… (and note where the growth is coming from) More ISAs A definite trend towards increased worksharing based on international phase work –As proposed in Roadmap, consistent with vision of PCT founders –PPH-PCT –Other offices—not part of PPH-PCT pilot—are independently offering PPH-like effect based on positive PCT reports (e.g., GB) PCT Trends

PCT Challenges

PCT Challenges (1) (not in any particular order) Keeping PCT from being politicized like many other parts of WIPO’s work Building trust between patent offices, so duplicative international phase and national phase processing can be reduced Quality of international work products Language issues –note supplementary search, PatentScope™ tools and other WIPO- developed services Developing countries (“how can we realistically benefit from PCT?”) –Top 15 countries responsible for 92.1% of IAs published in 2009 –Top 32 countries filed 96% of IAs in 2009 –The other 4% of filings are spread across 110 countries

PCT Challenges (2) Making PCT accessible to applicants of all types from all Contracting States (for example, SMEs) Helping PCT users stay abreast of new developments and strategies Unscrupulous companies/individuals who want to mislead PCT applicants into paying unrelated and unnecessary fees

The Future of the PCT

Higher quality PCT searches and examinations –via ISA/IPEA quality management efforts and increased emphasis on means for evaluating quality, 3 rd party submissions, top-up searches, etc. PPH/PCT and its ramifications More uniform system due to removal of incompatibilities and reservations Revitalized Chapter II Continuing to focus on practical-level developments to enhance the PCT user experience (for example, PatentScope™ enhancements, etc.) Collaborative international search and examination The Future of the PCT