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Acceptance by receiving Offices of documents in pre-conversion format (Section 706)

Under Section 706 of the Administrative Instructions under the PCT, the receiving Office may permit the applicant, when filing an international application electronically, to also submit the document in the original electronic format from which the international application has been converted (“pre-conversion document”), so that if the international application as filed is later found to contain errors due to the conversion, the pre-conversion document may be relied upon to correct the errors. The table below sets out the respective practices of the receiving Offices that have been notified to the International Bureau under Section 710(a)(iv).

Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
AL Albania Yes Any format
AP African Regional Intellectual Property Organization Yes Any format
AT Austria Yes Any format
AU Australia Yes Any format
AZ Azerbaijan Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
BG Bulgaria Yes Any format
BN Brunei Darussalam Yes Any format
BR Brazil Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
CA Canada Yes Any format
CH Switzerland Yes Any format
CL Chile Yes Any format
CN China Yes Any format
CO Colombia Yes Any format
CR Costa Rica Yes Any format
CU Cuba Yes Any format
CV Cabo Verde Yes Any format
CZ Czechia Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
DE Germany No Not applicable
DJ Djibouti Yes Any format
DK Denmark Yes Any format
DO Dominican Republic Yes Any format
DZ Algeria Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
EA Eurasian Patent Organization Yes Any format. The files should be in ZIP format and contain texts either in ASCII plain text or in any other commonly known format.
EC Ecuador Yes Any format
EE Estonia Yes Any format
EG Egypt Yes Any format
EP European Patent Organization Yes The files should be archived in ZIP format and contain either plain ASCII text or be created with one of the following word processing programs:
  • Microsoft Word 97 and later releases
  • Corel WordPerfect 6.1, 8 & 10 and later releases
  • Writer of OpenOffice 2.0 and later releases (including the corresponding StarOffice products).
ES Spain Yes Any format. The files should be archived in ZIP format.
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
FI Finland Yes Any format. The files should be in ZIP format and contain texts either in ASCII plain text or in any other commonly known format.
FR France Yes Not specified
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
GB United Kingdom Yes Any format
GE Georgia Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
HR Croatia Yes Any format
HU Hungary Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
IB World Intellectual Property Organization Yes Any format
ID Indonesia Yes Any format
IE Ireland Yes Any format
IL Israel Yes Any format
IN India Yes Any format
IQ Iraq Yes Any format
IR Iran (Islamic Republic of) Yes Any format
IS Iceland Yes Any format
IT Italy Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
JM Jamaica Yes Any format
JO Jordan Yes Any format
JP Japan No Not applicable
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
KE Kenya Yes Any format
KG Kyrgyzstan Yes Any format
KR Republic of Korea Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
LT Lithuania Yes Any format
LV Latvia Yes Any format
LY Libya Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
MA Morocco Yes Any format
MD Republic of Moldova Yes Any format
MK North Macedonia Yes Any format
MX Mexico Yes Any format
MY Malaysia Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
NI Nicaragua Yes Any format
NL Netherlands Yes Not specified
NO Norway Yes Any format
NZ New Zealand Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
OA African Intellectual Property Organization Yes Any format
OM Oman Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
PA Panama Yes Any format
PE Peru Yes Any format
PH Philippines Yes Any format
PL Poland Yes Any format
PT Portugal Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
QA Qatar  Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
RO Romania Yes Any format
RS Serbia Yes Any format
RU Russian Federation Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
SA Saudi Arabia Yes Any format
SD Sudan Yes Any format
SE Sweden Yes Any format. Documents should preferably not be password protected.
SG Singapore Yes Any format
SI Slovenia Yes Any format
SK Slovakia Yes Any format
SV El Salvador Yes Any format
SY Syrian Arab Republic Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
TH Thailand Yes Any format
TJ Tajikistan Yes Any format
TN Tunisia Yes Any format
TR Türkiye Yes Any format
TT Trinidad and Tobago Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
UG Uganda Yes Any format
US United States of America No Not applicable
UZ Uzbekistan Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
VN Viet Nam Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
WS Samoa Yes Any format
Two-letter code Contracting State or Organization Does the Office accept documents in pre-conversion format? If yes, which pre-conversion formats does the Office accept?
ZA South Africa Yes Any format
ZM Zambia Yes Any format
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