WIPO
INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
Regulations under the PCT
WOPCR
43/116

Rule 32

Extension of Effects of International Application to

Certain Successor States

32.1       Request for Extension of International Application to Successor State

(a)
The effects of any international application whose international filing date falls in the period defined in paragraph (b) may, subject to the performance by the applicant of the acts specified in paragraph (c), be extended to a State ("the successor State") whose territory was, before the independence of that State, part of the territory of a Contracting State which subsequently ceased to exist ("the predecessor State"), provided that the successor State has become a Contracting State through the deposit, with the Director General, of a declaration of continuation the effect of which is that the Treaty is applied by the successor State.
(b)
The period referred to in paragraph (a) starts on the day following the last day of the existence of the predecessor State and ends two months after the date on which the declaration referred to in paragraph (a) was notified by the Director General to the Governments of the States party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. However, where the date of independence of the successor State is earlier than the date of the day following the last day of the existence of the predecessor State, the successor State may declare that the said period starts on the date of its independence; such a declaration shall be made together with the declaration referred to in paragraph (a) and shall specify the date of independence.
(c)
In respect of any international application whose filing date falls within the applicable period under paragraph (b), the International Bureau shall send the applicant a notification informing him that he may make a request for extension by performing, within three months from the date of that notification, the following acts:
(i)
filing with the International Bureau the request for extension;
(ii)
paying to the International Bureau an extension fee in Swiss francs, the amount of which shall be the same as the amount of the designation fee referred to in Rule 15.2(a).
(d)
This Rule shall not apply to the Russian Federation.

32.2       Effects of Extension to Successor State

(a)
Where a request for extension is made in accordance with Rule 32.1,
(i)
the successor State shall be considered as having been designated in the international application, and
(ii)
the applicable time limit under Article 22 or 39(1) in relation to that State shall be extended until the expiration of at least three months from the date of the request for extension.
(b)
Where, in the case of a successor State which is bound by Chapter II of the Treaty, the request for extension was made after, but the demand was made before, the expiration of the 19th month from the priority date, and a later election is made of the successor State within three months from the date of the request for extension, the applicable time limit under paragraph (a)(ii) shall be at least 30 months from the priority date.
(c)
The successor State may fix time limits which expire later than those provided in paragraphs (a)(ii) and (b). The International Bureau shall publish information on such time limits in the Gazette.
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