PCT: Case Study concerning Form PCT/ISA/217 *Be Careful Of This Form*

[david]

3/31/11: Client sent us a request to respond to Form PCT/ISA/217 (April 2007) from the International Search Authority (ISA). It seemed an unusual request from the ISA since they were objecting to standard corrections requested by the “INVITATION TO CORRECT DEFECTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION” (Form PCT/RO/106) which came from the PCT Receiving Office.

We contacted Jeremy Fleming, from the PCT ISA Office and he explained that he does not review drawings based on an understanding of the drawings but a visual inspection. If something is “not identical” to the filed drawings then he issues Form PCT/ISA/217 and states that the proposed replacement drawings are refused. The ISA could object to such trivial things as the replacement of handwritten notes with an equivalent representation using a computer font. They will then go ahead and do the search based on the originally filed drawings. We think they just need to notify responsible parties why the revised drawings prepared in response to Form PCT/RO/106 have not been used in the search.

We, meaning the client and us, concluded that the best course of action is to not respond to Form PCT/ISA/217. By doing this, the ISA will reject the revise drawings generated by Form PCT/RO/106 and use the originally submitted drawings for its search.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by david.

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