Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 610
Sequence Listings

 (a)  Where the written opinion of the International Preliminary Examining Authority or the international preliminary examination report is based on a sequence listing not forming part of the international application but furnished for the purposes of the international preliminary examination, the written opinion and the international preliminary examination report of the International Preliminary Examining Authority shall so indicate.

(b)  Where a meaningful written opinion of the International Preliminary Examining Authority cannot be established, or a meaningful international preliminary examination cannot be carried out, as to whether the claimed invention appears to be novel, to involve an inventive step (to be non-obvious) and to be industrially applicable, because a sequence listing is not available to the International Preliminary Examining Authority in the required form, language and manner, that Authority shall so state in the written opinion and in the international preliminary examination report.

(c)  Where a sequence listing for the purposes of the international preliminary examination 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.

(d)  The International Preliminary Examining 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 preliminary examination;  and

(ii) transmit one copy thereof to the International Bureau, either immediately or together with the international preliminary examination report. If that listing is furnished on a physical medium in less than the number of copies required by the International Preliminary Examining 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.

(e)  Each International Preliminary Examining 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.

(f)  Where the national Office or intergovernmental organization that acted as the International Searching Authority also acts as the International Preliminary Examining Authority, any sequence listing not forming part of the international application but furnished to that Office or organization for the purposes of the international search shall be considered to have been furnished to it also for the purposes of the international preliminary examination.