Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 707
Calculation of International Filing Fee and Fee Reduction

(a)  Where an international application is filed in electronic form, the international filing fee shall, subject to paragraph (a-bis), be calculated on the basis of the number of sheets that the application would contain if presented as a print-out complying with the physical requirements prescribed in Rule 11.19

(a-bis)  Where the international application as filed contains an electronic file appearing to be a sequence listing in a file format compliant with WIPO Standard ST.26, the calculation of the international filing fee shall, in the calculation of the number of sheets, not take into account any material contained in such an electronic file.

(b)  Item 4(a), (b) and (c) of the Schedule of Fees annexed to the Regulations shall apply to reduce the fees payable in respect of an international application filed in electronic form with a receiving Office which has notified the International Bureau under Section 710(a) that it is prepared to receive international applications in electronic form or which has decided to receive such an application in accordance with Section 703(d).

19.  Editor's Note: Noting that Rule 11 leaves some flexibility as to the margins of the sheets (see Rule 11.6) and the size of the characters (see Rule 11.9(d)), the international filing fee should be calculated on the basis of the number of sheets that the application would contain if presented as a print-out complying with the minimum margin and character size requirements. In practice, however, the receiving Office should not print out the international application but rather rely on the number of pages of the international application as calculated by the electronic filing software and indicated in the request.