PCT Yearly Review - WIPO

Annexes
Glossary
Applicant: An individual or legal entity that files a patent
application. There may be more than one applicant in an
application. For PCT statistics, the first-named applicant
is used to determine the owner of a PCT application.
Elected Office: The national or regional office of or acting
for a state elected by the applicant under Chapter II of
the PCT, at which the applicant intends to use the results
of the international preliminary examination.
Application: A set of legal documents submitted to a
patent office requesting that a patent be granted for the
applicant’s invention. The patent office examines the
application and decides whether to grant a patent or
reject the application.
Authority specified for Supplementary International
Search (SISA): An International Searching Authority
(ISA) that provides a Supplementary International Search
service – also known as Supplementary International
Searching Authority (SISA).
Chapter I of the PCT: The provisions in the PCT that
regulate the filing of PCT applications, the establishment
of international searches and written opinions by ISAs,
and the international publication of PCT applications, and
that provide for the communication of PCT applications
and related documents to designated offices.
Chapter II of the PCT: The provisions in the PCT that
regulate the optional international preliminary examination
procedure.
Country of Origin: For statistical purposes, the country
of origin of a PCT application is the country of residence
(or nationality, in the absence of a valid residence) of the
first-named applicant in the application.
Designated Office (DO): A national or regional office
of or acting for a state designated in a PCT application
under Chapter I of the PCT.
Designated State: A contracting state in which protection
for the invention is sought, as specified in the
PCT application.
Filing Abroad: For statistical purposes, a patent application
filed by a resident of a given country with a
patent office of a foreign country. For example, a patent
application filed with the USPTO by an applicant residing
in France is considered a “filing abroad” from the perspective
of France. A “filing abroad” is the opposite of a
“non-resident filing”, which describes a patent application
by a resident of a foreign country from the perspective
of the country receiving the application.
International Authority: A national or regional patent
office or international organization that fulfills specific
tasks, as prescribed by the PCT.
International Bureau (IB): In the context of the PCT, the
IB of WIPO acts as a receiving office for PCT applications
from all contracting states. It also handles certain
processing tasks with respect to all PCT applications
filed with all receiving offices worldwide.
International Filing Date: The date on which the receiving
office receives a PCT application (provided certain
formality requirements have been met).
International Patent Classification (IPC): An internationally
recognized patent classification system, the IPC
has a hierarchical structure of language-independent
symbols and is divided into sections, classes, subclasses
and groups. IPC symbols are assigned according to the
technical features in patent applications. A patent application
that relates to multiple technical features can
be assigned several different IPC symbols.
International phase of the PCT: The international phase
consists of five main stages:
1. the filing of a PCT application by the applicant and
its processing by the receiving office;
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