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PCT Legal Administration

The Office of PCT Legal Administration is comprised of two branches: PCT Special Programs and PCT Legal Affairs .

PCT Special Programs Branch

The function of the PCT Special Programs Branch is to educate and assist the patent community with respect to the Patent Cooperation Treaty .

  • provides training courses to help patent applicants and practitioners file PCT applications
  • provides instruction to patent examiners at the USPTO concerning the search and examination of PCT applications.
  • provides direct assistance regarding PCT applications via the PCT Help Desk .

PCT Legal Affairs Branch

The PCT Legal Affairs Branch resolves legal issues relating to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Such issues most often arise through petitions to the Commissioner in PCT international applications and in U.S. national stage applications submitted under 35 U.S.C. 371 .

  • interprets and/or suggests changes to patent laws and rules and studies their effect on the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
  • deals with other aspects of international patent law such as harmonization , the Patent Law Treaty , and electronic filing .

Correspondence address used for filing new international applications, responses to invitations, demands, national phase entry paper, etc. 

Mail Stop PCT
Commissioner for Patents
PO Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

Hand delivery address* used for filing new international applications, responses to invitations, demands, national phase entry paper, etc. by delivery services (Federal Express (Fed Ex), UPS, DHL, Laser, Action, Purolator, etc.)

United States Patent and Trademark Office
Customer Service Window, Mail Stop PCT
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

* The location for the Customer Service Window is on the first floor of the south side of the Randolph Building with street level access from Ballenger Avenue.

Correspondence and hand delivery addresses used for filing petitions and other legal matters in international applications and national phase applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 371.  

Correspondence Address

Mail Stop PCT
Attention: PCT Legal
Commissioner for Patents
PO Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

Hand Delivery Address

United States Patent and Trademark Office
Customer Service Window, Mail Stop PCT
Attention: PCT Legal
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Address for PCT Operations customer service for inspecting files located in PCT PALM locations. Customer should call 703-756-1800 to make arrangements to inspect a file. 

PCT File Inspection Location

File Information Unit
Randolph Square Building
Room 3A20
2800 South Randolph Street
Arlington, VA 22206

 

PCT Forms, Fees and Information

What's NEW / Announcements

PCT Forms
Fees

PCT Documents

PCT Helpful Resources

PCT General Information

PCT & EFS-Web

PCT & Sequence Listing (SL)

PCT & Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

Related Sites

 

An important goal of the USPTO is to provide the worldwide intellectual property community with the most innovative and up-to-date customer service involving the Patent Cooperation Treaty. In our continuing efforts to meet the rapidly growing needs of our customers on a worldwide basis and provide a user-friendly product, we offer downloadable forms and fee information needed for the filing of international applications in the United States Receiving Office (RO/US) and the prosecution of international applications before the United States International Searching Authority (ISA/US) , the United States International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA/US) , and the United States Designated/Elected Office (DO/EO/US) .

Forms are available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). Viewing and printing the forms requires that you have Adobe's  free Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Details concerning Adobe Acrobat Reader installation and integration with your web browser are dependent upon your computing and browsing environment and cannot be provided or supported by the USPTO.

Note: The USPTO has made every effort to ensure that the PCT forms and information available on this site are accurate and up-to-date. It is the user's responsibility to ensure that the forms and information being downloaded and used in connection with any international application are accurate and current. The Request and Demand Forms are typically updated twice a year (January and July) by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Any newly revised forms or information should be available within 48 hours of receipt by the office. A reasonable delay between the date of revision and availability on this web site should be anticipated. 

PCT Mailing List 

The Office of PCT Legal Administration maintains a mailing list to notify PCT customers, via e-mail, of updates to the forms and other information on these pages. Requests to be placed on this list should be sent to pctupdates-request(at)uspto.gov* . Please ensure that you include your preferred e-mail address in the request. The USPTO privacy policy governs use of this list.

* To help protect our site from spam, please replace (at) with @ when addressing email.

PCT Telephone and Facsimile Numbers 

The PCT Help Desk, which provides information and assistance on the PCT process, may be reached by telephone at (571) 272-4300 between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:30 pm (EST/EDT), Monday through Friday or by facsimile (FAX) at (571) 273-0419 twenty-four hours a day.

The PCT Legal Office for petitions and other legal matters may be reached by facsimile (FAX) at (571) 273-0459 twenty-four hours a day.

The PCT Operations may be reached by facsimile (FAX) at (571) 273-3201 twenty-four hours a day.

Feedback

Comments and suggestions relating to the forms and information available on this site may be directed to the Office of PCT Legal Administration by mail or facsimile. Any correspondence by mail should be addressed to Mail Stop PCT, Commissioner for Patents, PO Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 . The contents of the envelope should be addressed to the attention of Harry Kim . Harry may be reached by facsimile (FAX) at (571) 273-0419 or by e-mail at Harry.Kim(at)uspto.gov* .

* To help protect our site from spam, please replace (at) with @ when addressing email.

Some contents linked to on this page require a plug-in for PDF File .

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Last Modified: 6/1/2012 6:21:08 AM