Term Description
OFF

Office of First Filing (OFF) is the term used to refer to an Office whose digital library holds the copy of a document which is to be accessed by other Offices. This equates to the term "Depositing Office" in the Framework Provisions. It should be noted that the term extends not only to the actual Office of First Filing, but to any other Office which holds a verified copy of the relevant document (for example, because it has been filed as a priority document in respect of a later application) and which makes it available through the system.

This terminology is used rather than the more exact "Depositing Office" because of the wide understanding of the term OFF in the context of the most important actual usage of the system.
OFF Confirmation Date Date when OFF registers the availability of Priority Document through the system.  This date may be important for legal reasons as it may be considered, by some offices, as the date on which the applicant met the requirements, under the Paris Convention, of furnishing a certified copy of a priority document by make the document available via the Digital Access Service.
OSF Office of Second Filing (OSF) is the term used to refer to an Office which wishes to retrieve a copy of a document which is held by an OFF. This equates to the term "Accessing Office" in the Framework Provisions. The term is used here because it is in current widespread use to describe the most important (and initially only) usage of this role by an Office dealing with an application which claims priority from an earlier application, the latter being the document to be accessed.
PCT-EDI PCT-EDI is a secure document exchange system used by WIPO and Offices. It is implemented and operated over Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). The requests and responses for PDOC exchange operations are structured as XML files. Some samples of the XML are given on the Consultative Group Forum.
PDOC Priority Document
TDA Trilateral Document Access (TDA) is the document exchange system used by the Trilateral Offices: USPTO, EPO and JPO. It is implemented as web services and operated over a secure network.