PCT National Phase Filing & Prosecution

PCT (Patent Cooperation treaty) is international treaty through which an application for patent can be filed in multiple countries on the basis of single application made before PCT. This treaty is administered by world Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Currently, there are around 157 contracting members in PCT.
The PCT International phase is followed by the PCT national phase in which the patent application has to be processed before the patent office of the specific countries of interest. The formal procedure followed in this phase is similar to the procedure followed by that respective country along with claiming priority from the PCT International application. For filing PCT national phase in Indian, the procedure involves similar to ordinary application except the priority has to be claimed from PCT International application. Further, filing application through PCT application has some procedural advantages:

•The applicant doesn’t need to provide copy of specification, a copy of PCT application is taken into record for that purpose; and

•The applicant can amend the claims (only deletion is allowed).

The applications filed through PCT are examined early as compared to ordinary applications as an international search report or examination report has already been established; therefore, the examiner relies mostly on those search reports generated during the international phase. Further, in case India was chosen as International Searching Authority (ISA), it entitles the applicant to request for expedite examination, which can ultimately speed-up the patent grant.
We at Delhi IP have Patent Agents/Attorneys who have extensive experience in filing PCT national phase applications and who keep watch over the timeline of filing relevant documents, so that our clients can stay relaxed and don’t have to worry about missing the timeline of filing anything