Effective January 10, 2012, the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) will be available as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) for PCT applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as the receiving office.
The offering of Rospatent as ISA or IPEA should provide applicants with a low-cost, but faster option for their PCT applications' international authority. The search fee for electing Rospatent as the ISA is $415 US. Electing Rospatent to be the IPEA will require an international preliminary examination fee of $5400 RUB and a handling fee of $219 US. If the applicant chooses not to have Rospatent perform the international search, the examination fee will be $8100 RUB.
It’s great to see another international patent office deemed acceptable to act as ISA or IPEA for PCT applications filed with the USPTO. Obviously, the more options available to the applicant, the better.
What ISA or IPEA do you usually elect for your PCT application? Will you be considering Rospatent now that it is available?
Will the cited documents issued be mostly in Russian? Or is it too early to tell? If translation is required it will add to the costs..
Hello Petter,
From my experience with search reports issued by other foreign patent offices, I would imagine the references cited by Rospatent would be predominantly in Russian. So yes, there could be additional costs associated with translating these documents.