Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 513
Sequence Listings

(a)  [Deleted]

(b)  Where the international search report and the written opinion of the International Searching Authority are based on a sequence listing not forming part of the international application but furnished for the purposes of the international search, the international search report and the written opinion of the International Searching Authority shall so indicate.

(c)  Where a meaningful international search cannot be carried out and a meaningful written opinion, as to whether the claimed invention appears to be novel, to involve an inventive step (to be non-obvious) and to be industrially applicable, cannot be established because a sequence listing is not available to the International Searching Authority in the required form, language and manner, that Authority shall so state in the international search report or declaration referred to in Article 17(2)(a), and in the written opinion.

(d)  Where a sequence listing for the purposes of the international search is furnished on a physical medium, that Authority shall physically label that medium with the words "SEQUENCE LISTING NOT FORMING PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION" in accordance with the procedures in Annex C.

(e)  The International Searching Authority shall:

(i) keep in its files one copy of any sequence listing which does not form part of the international application but was furnished for the purposes of the international search; and

(ii) transmit one copy thereof to the International Bureau together with the copy of the international search report. If that listing is furnished on a physical medium in less than the number of copies required by the International Searching Authority, that Authority shall be responsible for the preparation of the additional copy and shall have the right to fix a fee for performing that task and to collect such fee from the applicant.

(f)  Each International Searching Authority shall notify the International Bureau of the means of transmittal of the sequence listing accepted by it in accordance with Annex F. The International Bureau shall promptly publish details of the notification in the Gazette.