Revision 3 of the WIPO 'Draft Legal Framework and Technical Standard' for electronic patent filings under the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) has been released for public comment. This revision includes XML DTDs for the E-PCT Standard. WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva] is an "international organization dedicated to promoting the use and protection of works of the human spirit" through the development of IP protection regulations. Part 7 of the PCT Instructions Relating to The Electronic Filing and Processing of International Applications has been revised with 'XML DTDs for the E-PCT Standard' in Annex F, Appendix I, and is open for comment until August 24, 2001. The working group envisions that additional revised drafts will be issued prior to finalization and promulgation of the standard. The appendix "presents the XML DTDs used for the electronic exchange of international application documents as defined in Annex F and contains details of the methodology adopted in drafting these DTDs. The immediate goal of the specification is to support E-PCT applications, but the Trilateral Offices intends to use it as the basis for their own national electronic applications for a variety of industrial-property types and recommend that it would be the basis for an eventual WIPO standard for use by other Offices. Thus the DTDs created for E-PCT will be constructed in components for element definitions and from which the Trilateral Offices and others can derive elements and DTDs for their needs in a consistent and compatible manner. The other DTDs that will eventually be required will also be based on the component DTD architecture." Ten provisional XML DTDs are presented in graphical [PNG] and plain text format: E-PCT dossier, Request form, Application body, Declaration, Amendment request, Power of attorney, Fee sheet, Biological deposit, Receiving Office information, and Package header.

Contacts: Paul Brewin (EPO); Mitsuru Sono (JPO); Bruce B. Cox (USPTO); Shiro Ankyu (WIPO). [cf. Geneva Trilatera/WIPO Working Group]