Since July 2, 2012, third parties can submit prior art
observations during the International Phase of an application under
the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). These observations refer to
prior art which the third party believes to be relevant to the
patentability of the International Application solely for reasons
of novelty and/or inventive step. Third party observations can be
submitted at any time starting from the date of publication of the
International Application until its 28-month expiration from the
priority date. They must be filed at the International Bureau (IB).
No official fee is associated with this service at this time.
Each observation may contain up to ten (10) prior art
references. Each observation should point to specific passages of
the identified prior art and contain a brief description of their
relevance. The filing can only be done electronically through ePCT
or PATENTSCOPE, and submissions may be made anonymously, if
desired.
