WIPO
INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
Regulations under the PCT
WOPCR
37/116

Rule 26bis

Correction or Addition of Priority Claim

26bis.1       Correction or Addition of Priority Claim

(a)
The applicant may correct or add a priority claim by a notice submitted to the receiving Office or the International Bureau within a time limit of 16 months from the priority date or, where the correction or addition would cause a change in the priority date, 16 months from the priority date as so changed, whichever 16-month period expires first, provided that such a notice may be submitted until the expiration of four months from the international filing date. The correction of a priority claim may include the addition of any indication referred to in Rule 4.10.
(b)
Any notice referred to in paragraph (a) received by the receiving Office or the International Bureau after the applicant has made a request for early publication under Article 21(2)(b) shall be considered not to have been submitted, unless that request is withdrawn before the technical preparations for international publication have been completed.
(c)
Where the correction or addition of a priority claim causes a change in the priority date, any time limit which is computed from the previously applicable priority date and which has not already expired shall be computed from the priority date as so changed.

26bis.2       Invitation to Correct Defects in Priority Claims

(a)
Where the receiving Office or, if the receiving Office fails to do so, the International Bureau, finds that a priority claim does not comply with the requirements of Rule 4.10 or that any indication in a priority claim is not the same as the corresponding indication appearing in the priority document, the receiving Office or the International Bureau, as the case may be, shall invite the applicant to correct the priority claim.
(b)
If, in response to an invitation under paragraph (a), the applicant does not, before the expiration of the time limit under Rule 26bis.1(a), submit a notice correcting the priority claim so as to comply with the requirements of Rule 4.10, that priority claim shall, for the purposes of the procedure under the Treaty, be considered not to have been made and the receiving Office or the International Bureau, as the case may be, shall so declare and shall inform the applicant accordingly, provided that a priority claim shall not be considered not to have been made only because the indication of the number of the earlier application referred to in Rule 4.10(a)(ii) is missing or because an indication in the priority claim is not the same as the corresponding indication appearing in the priority document.
(c)
Where the receiving Office or the International Bureau has made a declaration under paragraph (b), the International Bureau shall, upon request made by the applicant and received by the International Bureau prior to the completion of the technical preparations for international publication, and subject to the payment of a special fee whose amount shall be fixed in the Administrative Instructions, publish, together with the international application, information concerning the priority claim which was considered not to have been made. A copy of that request shall be included in the communication under Article 20 where a copy of the pamphlet is not used for that communication or where the international application is not published by virtue of Article 64(3).

Rule 26ter

Correction or Addition of Declarations Under Rule 4.17

26ter.1       Correction or Addition of Declarations

       The applicant may correct or add to the request any declaration referred to in Rule 4.17 by a notice submitted to the International Bureau within a time limit of 16 months from the priority date, provided that any notice which is received by the International Bureau after the expiration of that time limit shall be considered to have been received on the last day of that time limit if it reaches it before the technical preparations for international publication have been completed.

26ter.2       Processing of Declarations

(a)
Where the receiving Office or the International Bureau finds that any declaration referred to in Rule 4.17 is not worded as required or, in the case of the declaration of inventorship referred to in Rule 4.17(iv), is not signed as required, the receiving Office or the International Bureau, as the case may be, may invite the applicant to correct the declaration within a time limit of 16 months from the priority date.
(b)
Where the International Bureau receives any declaration or correction under Rule 26ter.1 after the expiration of the time limit under Rule 26ter.1, the International Bureau shall notify the applicant accordingly and shall proceed as provided for in the Administrative Instructions.
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