The Nationalise PCT functionality lets you create national phase cases for existing international patents within the system.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Functionality Overview

This table outlines the case details needed to use the nationalise PCT case creation option.

OptionCase CategoryCase CountryDescription
Nationalise PCTPatentWIPO (WO)Quickly create national phase cases for any countries within the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

 

The main details of the original case will be copied to the national case(s). This includes:

  • Case Titles

  • Case Users

  • Client

  • Default Case Dates

  • Case Contacts (Applicants/Inventors)

The national cases you've created will automatically be added to the case family and be visible from the Family tab.


How do I create national phase cases?

  1. Go to the Details tab of the WO case

img

 

  1. Click Nationalise PCT in the Options sections of the left-hand menu

  1. Tick the box next to any countries where you would like to create a new case. 

img

  1. Set specific values for the national phases

    Note: for further information about which details to add, see the table on ‘Nationalisation Fields’ below.

 

  1. Click Nationalise. This takes you to the summary screen which displays the details of the cases you're creating.

   

img

 

 

  1. Click Nationalise again if you are happy with the summary.

 

  1. You'll be taken to the Details screen of the WO parent case you were viewing. A list of the new child cases will be visible in the case details displayed on the right-hand side. The child cases will also be accessible through the case family tab.

 

What happens if there's no priority date in Equinox?

Equinox can automatically add the 30/31 month deadline onto the generated national phase  cases. If no priority date is available, a warning message will appear when you use the 'Nationalise PCT' tool. This warning message reads:

'Warning: No Priority Date - Automatically generated 30/31 month Tasks are based on Priority.'

There's a dropdown menu below this message. The dropdown lets you choose whether to:

  • Continue without automatic deadlines

    Or

  • Continue with automatic deadlines calculated from filing

If you choose to continue without automatic deadlines, the 30/31 month deadlines will not be added to the national phase cases. If you choose to continue with the deadlines calculated from filing, the 30/31 month deadlines will be added to the national phase cases, calculated from the filing date of the PCT case.


Default nationalisation fields

When creating national cases, certain fields can be copied to the new cases. There are some differences in the default fields for nationalisation cases, which are outlined below.

You can edit the highlighted fields when creating nationalisation cases:

img

 

FieldDefault ValuesAdditional Information
Category and SubcategoryCategory: Patent Subcategory: ’Nationalisation of PCT’Category details are displayed at the top of the screen. You can edit these if necessary.
Status‘Pending’You can edit the case status if necessary.
Renewal ResponsibilityRenewal Responsibility: BlankThe renewal dropdown option is displayed at the top of the screen. You can edit this if necessary.
‘Add Automatic 30/31 month rule Tasks ‘Ticked by default.Determines whether the system default tasks that record the deadline should be added to the new case(s) automatically.  Note: You can untick this by default or hide this option completely – please contact our support team for assistance with this. If you're using Workflows this option is not available.
New Case Codes[Original case code] +[Two-character country code]Manually edit the new case codes, if necessary.
Select AssociateBlank/Preferred AssociateSelect an associate for that country, if necessary. The associate will need to be added as a contact within your Address Book.  Note: If your system uses the Correspondence functionality you can configure a list of preferred associate contacts to be selected by default. See the module on ‘Outgoing Correspondence’ for more information.