The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) are now able to exchange priority documents through secure electronic connections using the Trilateral Document Access (TDA) Web Services at no cost to the applicant.
A Priority Document (PDoc) is a certified copy of a patent application from an Office of First Filing (OFF) provided to an Office of Second Filing (OSF) to support a claim for priority to an earlier date of filing under the Paris Convention. This electronic exchange of copies of priority documents promotes sharing of information between the Trilateral Offices and reduces the administrative costs associated with handling paper copies of priority documents and scanning them into the offices' electronic image record management systems.
Notices and instructions for using this free service:
- PDX information
- Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents
- Simplification of the Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents
- Addition of JPO as participating foreign IPO in Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents