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Common Application Format
The Trilateral Offices agreed on the common application format in consultation with users in November 2007. The agreement is as follows:
This format allows an applicant needing to file an application in each Office to prepare a single application in the Common Application Format, and it will be accepted by each Office without the need for amendments related to formalities. This will provide significant savings to applicants in the filing and processing of patent applications before the Trilateral Offices.
Relation of the Common Application Format to the PLT and PCT
The Common Application Format rationalizes divergent filing requirements applied in each of the Trilateral Offices. Noting that the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) has not yet come into force for any of the Trilateral Offices, some elements of the Common Application Format harmonize diverging filing requirements for national/regional applications filed in each of the Trilateral Offices by referring to the corresponding PCT provisions, which would apply prior to the PLT coming into effect for all of the Trilateral Offices. Other elements of the Common Application Format address issues not regulated by the PCT for which the offices have different practices. Still other elements pertain to issues that go beyond the PCT but, in terms of future development, represent what the offices consider to be appropriate means for addressing those issues.
