I believe Stephen is correct regarding the confidentiality of International
Preliminary Examination Reports under Chapter II of the PCT. I do not know
if it's true in general, but in Canada the IPER for a given PCT application
becomes available to the public after the application enters the Canadian
national phase, by the following mechanism. All the documentation received
from WIPO by the Canadian PCT Office is stored in a temporary PCT
application file, the content of which is confidential but is transferred
into the Canadian national file upon the entry into the national phase. As
by that time the PCT application has already been published internationally
(and, by definition, nationally in each designated/elected country), the
national application file, subject to Canadian patent law, is open for
public inspection. This apparently should work in the same or similar way in
all publishing countries (i.e., countries other than the U.S.A.). I am not
sure, however, if it would be the same in the U.S.A., where all national
application files (whether PCT transfer or not), I believe, remain
confidential until the application issues to a patent.
Kazimierz T. Kaminski, Ph.D.
Registered Patent Agent
InfoSciTech
tel.: (613) 824-9076
fax: (613) 824-9562
Web site: http://www.infoscitech.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Adams" <stevea@magister.co.uk>
To: <piug-l@derwent.tecc.co.uk>
Cc: <claudia.chandler@kvaerner.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 3:59 AM
Subject: Re: Prelim exam report
> To the best of my knowledge, International Preliminary Examination
> reports conducted under Chap. II of the PCT process are confidential
> correspondence between the applicant and the IPE Authority concerned,
> just as other patent office official actions. There is no public
> access. I guess that if the applicant decides to proceed to
> national/regional phase once IPE is over, the information would become
> accessible as part of the national/regional docket e.g. the US file
> wrapper or the EP Register data (soon via EPOLine).
> I'm not an attorney and stand to be corrected on this one, but I
> certainly haven't seen any online files of IPE reports so far.
>
> --
> 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.uk
>
> Registered in England and Wales. Company No. 3407685
> Registered address : Canada House, 272 Field End Road, Eastcote,
> Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 9NA.
>
>
>
>
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