Increasingly such information is entering the INPADOC legal status data.
One sees info there from CA, JP, GB, US, and the EPO, to list some off the
top of my head; I may have missed some.
Stu Kaback
-----Original Message-----
From: rakurt@mmm.com [SMTP:rakurt@mmm.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2000 10:07 AM
To: piug-l@derwent.co.uk
Subject: Re: DESIGNATED STATES
As a follow-up question to Steve's answer below, does anyone know of any
sources, methods, etc. to find when an application actually enters the
national stage in an individual designated state but before the application
or patent publishes/issues? Do not think there is anything but would like
some confirmation for one of our patent liaisons. Thank
Richard Kurt
3M
---------------------- Forwarded by Richard A. Kurt/US-Corporate/3M/US on
01/19/2000 09:00 AM ---------------------------
Stephen Adams <stevea@magister.co.uk> on 01/19/2000 03:38:49 AM
To: intprop@earthlink.net
cc: piug-l@derwent.tecc.co.uk (bcc: Richard A. Kurt/US-Corporate/3M/US)
Subject: Re: DESIGNATED STATES
Under the PCT system, the list of designated states comprises those
countries - out of the 104 currently in the system - where the applicant
has indicated they wish to pursue their case. It can only really be
taken as *some* indication of the hoped-for breadth of patent protection
for which the applicant is applying, since many applicants now seem to
automatically designate a very large proportion of the candidate
states. Many of these states will be dropped later on, and so the
appearance of a country code in a DS field is no indication that there
is ever going to be a granted patent in that country later on.
It's important to remember that the PCT does not grant patents. It only
handles the preliminary stages of publication and search report, plus -
in some cases - a preliminary opinion on patentability. Once that stage
is completed, the whole package is passed to national patent offices for
completion under their domestic laws. Consequently, a "complete" patent
family in a database like WPI or INPADOC, if it's based entirely upon a
single PCT application, will comprise the WO basic, a number of national
A publications and a (probably smaller) number of national B
publications or grants.
What you are seeing when you get an AU-A number in the family, which
usually happens very rapidly, is that the transfer to the so-called
Australian "national phase" has been finished. There is no Australian
grant yet.
For all the other designated states, you may see some unexamined numbers
coming through in the next few months, for example an EP-A. As with the
Australians, all this means is that the entry to that patent system has
been confirmed (in the case of the EPO, this is referred to as regional
phase rather than national phase because the EPO is a regional system).
Basically, what you have encountered is the very early stages of a
patent application. Other members should work through in the next few
months. Then the fun begins - it's called substantive examination!
-- Stephen Adams Magister Ltd. Crown House, 231 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 4LS, GB Tel: +44 (0)118 929 9515 Fax: +44 (0)118 929 9516 e-mail: stevea@magister.co.ukRegistered in England and Wales. Company No. 3407685 Registered address : Canada House, 272 Field End Road, Eastcote, Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 9NA.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 10 2001 - 15:58:04 EDT