Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 103
Languages of the Forms Used by International Authorities

(a)  The language of the Forms used by any receiving Office shall be the same as the language in which the international application is filed, provided that: 

(i) where the international application is to be published in the language of a translation required under Rule 12.3(a) or 12.4(a), the receiving Office shall use the Forms in such language;

(ii) the receiving Office may, in its communications to the applicant, use the Forms in any other language being one of its official languages.

(b)  Subject to Section 104(b), the language or languages of the Forms to be used by any International Searching Authority shall be specified in the applicable agreement referred to in Article 16(3)(b).

(c)  Subject to Section 104(b), the language or languages of the Forms to be used by any International Preliminary Examining Authority shall be specified in the applicable agreement referred to in Article 32(3).

(d)  The language of any Form used by the International Bureau shall be English where the language of the international application is English, and it shall be French where the language of the international application is French. Where the language of the international application is neither English nor French, the language of any Form used by the International Bureau in its communications to any other International Authority shall be English or French according to the wishes of such Authority, and in its communications to the applicant it shall be English or French according to the wishes of the applicant.