Research Disclosure

PCT Minimum Documentation status

RD has PCT Minimum Documentation status. The publications included on the list are nominated by the national patent offices of the PCT treaty nations. Because so many patent examiners in the treaty nations routinely search RD, they nominated and voted for both the Journal and the Electronic service for inclusion. This clearly underlines RD’s popularity with the patent office authorities.This PCT Minimum Documentation status requires all PCT international search authorities (ISAs) to search RD when examining patent applications.

Currently the international search authorities consist of the European Patent Office and the national patent offices of the following countries: Australia, Austria, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the USA. In addition a further fifty or so patent offices use ISA search standards when examining national patent applications and so also rigorously search RD prior to granting a patent. No other public disclosure service can boast this status and consequently cannot offer you any real assurance that their product will be searched by patent examiners.

'The PCT status
requires all
international
search authorities
to search RD
when examining
patent
applications'