General Conditions for the Sale of WIPO Products and Services Containing PCT Data

(Last updated: March 1, 2024)

The following conditions shall apply to all sales by WIPO to Customers of Products or Services containing PCT Data. All offers and invoices issued by WIPO are subject to these conditions and all orders accepted by the Customer imply acceptance of these conditions.

Definitions: In these General Conditions, “Products and Services” refer to WIPO Products and Services embodying data pertaining to published patent applications filed under the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), referred to as “PCT data”.
Prices and Payments; Delivery: Prices to the Customer will be those set forth in the invoice issued by WIPO. All sums payable by the Customer thereunder shall be paid free and without any deduction of any taxes imposed or assessed by any governmental authority. Delivery of the Products and Services shall commence on the date on which full payment is received by WIPO. Any applicable international duties, bank fees, brokerage fees, custom or import taxes shall be paid by the Customer.
Packaging (Applicable to Products): Unless otherwise specified in the order, packing of Products shall be in conformity with WIPO’s practice for the transport concerned. Costs for special packing at the request of the Customer are not included in the price of Products and shall be subject to additional sums to be paid by the Customer.
Grant of Rights:
1. Against the payment of a basic license, the Customer shall have a worldwide and non-exclusive right to make the following uses of digital extracts of PCT data contained in the Products and Services:
  1. to copy, publish, display or provide digital extracts for users of the Customer's services;
  2. to authorize users of the Customer's services to access and use digital extracts, including downloading, creating printouts, reproducing, reformatting, analyzing, printing and displaying such extracts of data.
2. Against the payment of a non-derivative license, the Customer shall have the rights granted under 4.1, as well as a worldwide and non-exclusive right to make the following uses of the complete dataset of PCT data contained in the Products and Services:
  1. to acquire, download and store it in a searchable database;
  2. to internally redistribute or transfer to the Customer's subsidiaries, associated or affiliated companies, and members of the same group of companies.
3. Against the payment of a derivative license, the Customer shall have the rights granted under 4.1 and 4.2, as well as a worldwide and non-exclusive right to redistribute in bulk the PCT data contained in the Products and Services, in exchange for a fee, provided that:
  1. the Customer redistributes such data with “added value” (i.e., with substantial modification of the PCT data, beyond that made available “as is”);
  2. such redistribution does not constitute unfair competition (i.e., the price of the added value product should not be lower than the price of the PCT data product paid by the Customer to WIPO).
Conditional Use (where applicable): In making uses of PCT data contained in WIPO Products and Services marked as “conditional use,” the Customer shall meet the following conditions: (i) for data integrated into a web application, the subscriber shall take the necessary technical measures to prevent the complete and easy bulk downloading of the data “as is” by users of the Customer’s service on the Internet; (ii) the Customer shall only redistribute the data to identified users; The web service provided by PATENTSCOPE has the following technical restrictions to ensure equitable and efficient access by many users worldwide: (i) 10 retrieval related actions per minute from an individual IP address of a subscriber; and (ii) Unreasonable/excessive use may result in access being denied temporarily or permanently for a given user ID or IP address.
Prohibited use: The Customer shall not process or use PCT data contained in the Products and Services for the following purposes: (i) to use the supplied data sets for a commercial exploitation of personal data contained therein; (ii) to use the data in detriment to the protection of public and moral order; (iii) to use the data for any fraudulent activity.
Data Availability (where applicable): PCT data of the current year will be available on the WIPO ftp server until the first publication of PCT data of the following year (which normally occurs the first week of January every year).
Acknowledgment of source and Disclaimer: The Customer shall identify WIPO as the source of any of the PCT data contained in WIPO Products and Services. Any identification of WIPO as the source shall include the following disclaimer: “The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) bears no responsibility for the integrity or accuracy of the data contained herein, in particular due, but not limited, to any deletion, manipulation, or reformatting of data that may have occurred beyond its control.”
Warranty and Claims: WIPO warrants that on delivery, the Products and Services shall conform in all material respects with their description, and be free from material defects in design and manufacture. WIPO shall not be liable for any non-compliance with the foregoing warranty where the Customer has misused the Products and Services or not stored them properly and in suitable conditions. In the event that the Products and Services are defective, the Customer shall notify WIPO accordingly, in writing, within 10 days as from the date of delivery. Failure to notify WIPO of any defects within the 10-day period constitutes a waiver by the Customer of all claims. WIPO shall, where applicable, at its option: (i) provide a refund upon return of the Products and Services to WIPO; or, (ii) repair the Products and Services in a manner that would enable the Products and Services to conform to the required specifications; or, (iii) replace the Products and Services with Products and Services of equal or better quality. Save the foregoing warranties, WIPO gives no other warranties to the Customer, including as to the quality or accuracy of translations contained in the Products and Services and the relevance of the Products and Services to the Customer’s needs or fitness for purpose.
Modifications to Products and Services: WIPO reserves the right to discontinue, to issue, and to modify, at any time, the number, content, format, structure, and description of any or all of the PCT data contained in the Products and Services. Any of such modifications shall take effect 90 days following posting of a notice on WIPO’s web site and following e-mail notification to the Customer.
No Legal Value: With the exception of the image-based PDF version of published international applications under PCT, all PCT data made available in the Products and Services do not have legal value. In particular, the data of PCT full text obtained by applying automatic optical character recognition (“OCR”) procedures to the scanned images of the documents is not legally authentic.
Disclaimers; Liability: WIPO makes every effort to ensure, but cannot guarantee, the accuracy and integrity of PCT data contained in the Products and Services. The PCT data contained in the Products and Services is provided on a strictly “as is” basis and the Customer is fully and solely responsible for the use of the PCT data and for any results and consequences of this use. In particular, the Customer acknowledges that the PCT data obtained by applying automatic OCR procedures to the scanned images of the documents are prone to error. WIPO shall in no event be liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect or punitive damages, including, but not limited to, loss of use, loss of data, loss of profits, loss of anticipated savings, or business interruption that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the Products or Services. The names and the designations used in the Products and Services do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WIPO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area. WIPO shall not be liable or deemed to be in default for any delays or failure in performance or interruption of service resulting directly or indirectly from any cause or circumstance beyond its reasonable control.
Intellectual Property: By selling the Products and Services, WIPO does not transfer any intellectual property rights that may be attached to the said Products and Services. All ownership of intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights with respect to the Products and Services, remain the exclusive property of WIPO.
Use of the Name or Emblem of WIPO: The Customer shall not use the name or emblem of WIPO without the prior written permission of WIPO.
Modifications to the General Conditions: WIPO may amend these General Conditions at any time at its sole discretion. Any amendments will be posted on WIPO’s website. Unless stated otherwise, amendments shall take effect immediately following posting of the new General Conditions.
Termination (where applicable): The present Conditions may be terminated by either WIPO or the Customer upon written notification. Such termination will be deemed effective 60 days after the receipt of such notification by the party so notified. WIPO reserves the right to cancel the subscription of a Customer who does not comply with the terms and conditions. Any such cancellation will have immediate effect without notice being given.
Settlement of Disputes: WIPO and the Customer shall use their best efforts to amicably settle any dispute arising out of the Contract. If not settled amicably, the dispute may be referred to arbitration in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules then in force. The appointing authority shall be the Secretary General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The place of arbitration shall be Geneva, Switzerland. The decisions of the arbitral tribunal shall be based on general principles of international law. The Parties shall be bound by any arbitration award rendered as a result of such arbitration as the final adjudication of such a dispute.
Privileges and Immunities: Nothing in or relating to the offer, invoice and these conditions shall be deemed a waiver, express or implied, of any of the privileges and immunities accorded to WIPO as international organization and specialized agency of the United Nations.