PCT Receiving Office Guidelines

Chapter VIIbis: Declarations Relating to National Requirements

Requirements for Declarations

192A. The applicant may include in Box No. VIII of the request one or more of the following declarations concerning:

(i) declaration as to the identity of the inventor (Box No. VIII (i)) (Rule 4.17(i) and Sections 211 and 212(b));

(ii) declaration as to the applicant's entitlement, as at the international filing date, to apply for and be granted a patent (Box No. VIII (ii)) (Rule 4.17(ii) and Section 212);

(iii) declaration as to the applicant's entitlement, as at the international filing date, to claim priority of the earlier application (Box No. VIII (iii)) (Rule 4.17(iii) and Section 213);

(iv) declaration as to inventorship (only for the purposes of the United States of America) (Box No. VIII (iv)) (Rule 4.17(iv) and Section 214(a));

(v) declaration as to non prejudicial disclosures or exceptions to lack of novelty (Box No. VIII (v)) (Rule 4.17(v) and Section 215).

192B. The receiving Office examines the check boxes in Box No. VIII for reference to declarations and checks whether any declarations indicated in those check boxes are included in Box No. VIII (i) to (v) and any Continuation of Box No. VIII (i) to (v). If the receiving Office finds that a check box in Box No. VIII of the request has been incorrectly marked, or that the number of declarations referred to in Rule 4.17 has been incorrectly indicated in the right column of that Box, the check box or indication concerned may need to be corrected.

192C. Where the request contains one or more declarations referred to in Rule 4.17, the receiving Office may check (Rule 26ter.2(a)) that:

(i) each declaration is worded as prescribed by Sections 211 to 215, as applicable (as explained in the Notes to the request form). The standardized wording of the declaration of inventorship which is applicable only for the purpose of the designation of the United States of America is pre printed in Box No. VIII (iv) since no part of that wording may be omitted by the applicant;

(ii) any declaration of inventorship in Box No. VIII (iv) is signed and dated directly by the inventor for the United States of America - a signature by an appointed agent is not sufficient for that purpose.

The receiving Office carries out no further checks on any declarations contained in the request form. In particular, it does not check that the name(s) and address(es) of the person(s) making a declaration correspond to the name(s) and address(es) of the applicant(s) or inventor(s) indicated in Boxes Nos. II and III of the request form. It also does not check for the purposes of which State a given declaration is made under Rule 4.17.