WIPO Reports on Comparative Timeliness of PCT Procedures

A new report from WIPO compares Receiving Offices, Searching Authorities, and Examining Authorities in their timeliness of performing certain tasks. For example, the chart below shows the timeliness of the U.S. receiving office (RO) in furnishing record copies to the international bureau from the international filing date to the date of receipt at the international bureau on a quarterly basis:

Purple indicates delays of over eight weeks in the U.S. "This is the sort of thing that ought not to take very long to do," writes Carl Oppedahl. In fact, Great Britain, Japan and Sweden appear to have consistently averaged 0-4 weeks.

The next chart shows the timeliness of the US international searching authorities (ISA) in furnishing international search reports (ISR) to the international bureau from the priority date to the date of receipt at the international bureau on a quarterly basis:

In the chart above, green is over 30 months while blue is 21-30 months. This last chart shows the timeliness of the U.S. international preliminary examining authorities (IPEA) to furnish international preliminary examination reports (IPER) to the international bureau from the priority date to the date of receipt at the international bureau on a quarterly basis:

Pink indicates over 32 months.