Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

Article 22
Copy, Translation, and Fee, to Designated Offices

(1)  The applicant shall furnish a copy of the international application (unless the communication provided for in Article 20 has already taken place) and a translation thereof (as prescribed), and pay the national fee (if any), to each designated Office not later than at the expiration of 30* months from the priority date. Where the national law of the designated State requires the indication of the name of and other prescribed data concerning the inventor but allows that these indications be furnished at a time later than that of the filing of a national application, the applicant shall, unless they were contained in the request, furnish the said indications to the national Office of or acting for the State not later than at the expiration of 30* months from the priority date.

(2)  Where the International Searching Authority makes a declaration, under Article 17(2)(a), that no international search report will be established, the time limit for performing the acts referred to in paragraph (1) of this Article shall be the same as that provided for in paragraph (1).

(3)  Any national law may, for performing the acts referred to in paragraphs (1) or (2), fix time limits which expire later than the time limit provided for in those paragraphs.

*   Editor's Note:  The 30-month time limit, as in force from April 1, 2002, does not apply in respect of any designated Office which has notified the International Bureau of incompatibility with the national law applied by that Office. The 20-month time limit, as in force until March 31, 2002, continues to apply after that date in respect of any such designated Office for as long as Article 22(1), as modified, continues not to be compatible with the applicable national law. Information received by the International Bureau concerning any such incompatibility is published in the Gazette and on the WIPO website at: www.wipo.int/en/web/pct-system/texts/reservations/res_incomp.