WSO Organizes First Live PCT Q&A

August 18, 2020

On August 5, the WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) organized the very first online Q&A session on the PCT. This activity was unique because it did not feature any presentations or PowerPoints - it was based entirely on the audience asking questions and the panel of WIPO experts responding.

The session was promoted through the IP associations in each ASEAN member state, as well as to the WSO Newsletter subscribers. These communiques resulted in 115 patent agents and IP academics from 10 countries registering to participate.

The session was moderated by the WSO Officer-in-Charge, Mr. Peter Willimott and featured four PCT experts from WIPO’s Geneva headquarters (Mr. Matthias Reischle, PCT Legal and User Relations Division; Ms. Anjali Aeri, PCT International Cooperation Division; Ms. Viviane Gross, PCT eService Unit; and Ms. Sunwha Lee, PCT Operations Team). As the audience were welcome to ask questions about any aspect of the PCT, it was important to have four experts that covered the breadth of the PCT’s operations, from rules and regulations to procedures and online tools.

The session was a great success with a constant flow of questions posed to the WIPO experts. In fact, Q&A generated so much discussion that the session had to be extended 30 minutes past its advertised end time.

The questions covered areas such as priority claims, how to set up an ePCT account, digital certificates, working and non-working days for ROs, Article 27.1, PCT filing procedures, filing a demand under article 34 and grey scale drawings.

A recording of the session is available.

The WSO hopes to offer other topic-specific Q&A sessions on the Madrid Protocol and Hague System in the near future. To keep informed of these and other events the WSO is involved in subscribe to the WSO newsletter here.