The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) added a new feature in January 2012 in an effort to promote licensing. Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applicants may submit form PCT/IB/382, which informs others that the patent application is available for licensing. The form also allows PCT applicants to specify certain licensing terms, such as whether the invention is available for exclusive or nonexclusive licensing, and the countries in which the application is available for licensing. The licensing indications are found in the bibliographic data section on the PATENTSCOPE website, but are not published with the international application itself. Applicants can submit the licensing form any time after the !ling of a PCT application up until 30 months after the priority date. To date, form PCT/ IB/382 has been !led for 188 PCT applications; these PCT applications are included on the PATENTSCOPE website list of patent applications that are available for licensing.

In 2010, the WIPO working group endorsed the development and use of form PCT/IB/382 to help foster dissemination of technical information and facilitate access to technology contained in PCT and national applications and patents. This new feature is part of a plan the WIPO working group endorsed that also included providing information concerning oppositions to patents, revocation and lapse of patents, and the issuance of compulsory licenses. The information about licensing availability from form PCT/IB/382 has been integrated into WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE search system to permit information about patents and applications to be determined more readily; however, the other provisions are not currently available through the PATENTSCOPE search feature.

Originally published in LANDSLIDE, a publication of the ABA section of intellectual property law, Vol. 6, No. 3 on January 23, 2014.