As discussed previously here and here, in November the relevant Knesset Committee considered and approved amendments to the Israel patent statute that would enable Israel to become a PCT search authority. As expected, those amendments were approved by the Knesset in second and third readings and published in Reshumot (the Israeli version of the Federal Register) on December 8, 2011. Tellingly, the transitional provision of the amendments provides for their coming into force 30 days after publication, unless the Justice Minister issues an order delaying their coming into force. On December 26, 2011, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman issued such an order, pushing the relevant date back to April 1, 2012. It’s a fair bet that if the ILPTO isn’t ready to act as a PCT search authority by then, a similar order will be issued sometime in March.
Also on December 26, regulations were published regarding the filing of PCT applications at the Israel Receiving Office. Applicants wishing to file in Hebrew will still need to file at the IB, as applications filed at the ILRO will still need to be filed in English. However, applicants at the ILRO will now be able to file on electronic media, e.g. CD-ROM, which is good news for everyone. The new Regulations will also facilitate the filing of applications over the internet…once the ILPTO has a mechanism in place for doing so (may it be His will, speedily in our day, etc.). On December 29, the ILPTO published an update regarding the implementation of the new regulations.
A welcome piece of news for applicants filing national phase applications in Israel is that the December 26 regulations did away with initial publication fees for national phase applications – a savings of 170 shekels. Curiously, although the cancellation of this fee came into force on December 26, as of this writing the ILPTO’s online fee payment system still includes this fee for national phase applications. Even more curiously, on December 29 the ILPTO published a notice of new fees that will take effect from January 1, 2012, as well as a letter announcing the change; that notice also shows a publication fee for national phase applications. Presumably this is an oversight that will be remedied soon. [UPDATE - January 4: the online payment system now allows national phase applicants to pay the filing fee only, without paying a publication fee.]
Download (in Hebrew): the statutory amendments, and the order and regulations of December 26 (along with the ILPTO’s update regarding PCT filings).
