Learning How to Examine PCT National Phase Applications
October 15, 2019
A training workshop for patent examiners of the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) took place from October 8 to 10 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The event was organized by WIPO, OAPI and the Japan Patent Office (JPO).
The objective of the workshop was to learn and discuss the best approaches to conduct substantive examination of PCT international applications in the national phase.
Exploring tools to facilitate patent examination
Substantive patent examination is a challenge particularly for a smaller intellectual property (IP) offices. While internal examination resources are limited, examiners can exploit external examination work products, for example, citations already available from other IP offices or third parties, to complement their own prior art searches.
Online access to examination work products from national phases of other IP offices has notably improved during recent years and therefore provides great opportunities to facilitate examination in the national phase of a smaller office and enhance both efficiency and quality.
This transparency of national phase examination still continues to evolve with more and more IP offices providing public access to their e-dossiers. Important roles play platforms, such as WIPO-CASE and IP5 Global Dossier, which act as "one-stop-shops" for accessing the various national e-dossiers.
About the workshop
During the workshop, participants learned in particular how to research patent family information, analyze examination status in different national phases, and retrieve and compare citation and dossier information of family members by using the said platforms and other databases and tools, such as, Espacenet, J-PlatPat, PATENTSCOPE, US Public Pair and the Common Citation Document.
