PCT Receiving Office Guidelines
Chapter VI: Article 14 Check and Other Formal Requirements
Kind of Protection or Treatment
108. Under Rule 4.9(a)(ii), the filing of a request shall constitute an indication that the international application is, in respect of each designated State to which Article 43 or 44 applies, for the grant of every kind of protection which is available by way of the designation of that State. Upon filing of the request, the applicant will obtain an automatic and all-inclusive coverage of every kind of protection available in any designated State. The applicant may indicate, under Rule 4.11(a)(i) and (ii), an intention to make an indication under Rule 49bis.1 of the wish for the international application to be treated as an application for certain kinds of protection in certain States (this applies only to applications for patents of addition, certificates of addition, inventors' certificates of addition, utility certificates of addition or continuation or continuation-in-part of an earlier application; see paragraph 116), but this does not affect the extent of the designation made under Rule 4.9 (Rule 4.11(b)). Under Rule 4.9(a)(ii), no further specification as to the kind of protection and no exclusion of certain kinds of protection is possible. If such indications are included in the request, they should be deleted by the receiving Office ex officio, as provided for in Rule 4.19(b) and Section 303 (paragraphs 161 to 165). However, the applicant may submit a separate notice of withdrawal of certain kinds of protection (paragraphs 314 and 322).
109. [Deleted]
110. Where different types of protection are available in the same State, they are available only for the same applicant; for example, where it is possible to obtain a utility model in addition to a patent, it is not possible to indicate different applicants for these different types of protection in respect of the same designated State.
111. The applicant wishes the international application to be treated in any designated State (whose national law provides for that kind of protection) as an application not for a patent but for an inventor's certificate, a utility certificate, a utility model, a "petty patent," a patent of addition, a certificate of addition, an inventor's certificate of addition or utility certificate of addition, he can indicate so to the national Office, under Rule 49bis.1, only when performing the acts referred to in Article 22 for entering the national phase (concerning the indications under Rule 4.11(a)(i) and (ii), see paragraph 116).