This morning the Israel PTO (officially the Israel Patents, Design and Trademarks Authority) released an announcement by email that as of June 2012, it will offer services as a PCT search and examination authority. (As of this writing, the announcement does not appear on the ILPTO's website, but presumably it will be posted there soon. UPDATE: on April 5 this link to the announcement appeared on the ILPTO's site; no English version seems to have been prepared.) This follows the announcement in September 2009 that Israel had been selected, along with Egypt, as a candidate to become such an authority - although, as today's announcement notes, it is unknown when (if ever) Egypt might actually become a PCT search authority; one suspects that this isn't the Muslim Brotherhood's highest priority. (The announcement also took a dig at India, noting that India has had the opportunity since 2007 to become a PCT search authority but still hasn't become one. Score one for the little guys.)
The fees for PCT searches and examinations at the ILPTO are not mentioned in the announcement, but that doesn't stop the announcement from stating that initially the search fee for Israeli PCT applicants will be reduced. Presumably even without the reduction for local applicants, the fees will be less than the search fees at the EPO or the USPTO, the two ISAs that PCT filers at the Israel Receiving Office must presently use. Also, although the announcement does not explictly say so, in other contexts the powers-that-be at the ILPTO have made it clear that initially these services will be available only to filers using the Israel RO.
Comments: First, congratulations are in order. The administration at the ILPTO is proud, and rightly so, that it has achieved PCT ISA status in just over two-and-half years from the initial announcement, which is about the time initially predicted; rarely are projects of this sort in Israel executed in a timely fashion. Nevertheless, there are at least two mildly concerning aspects to today's announcement.
The first is the statement of the Commissioner in the announcement that "The operation of the [search] service will obligate Patents Authority to upgrade its work practices in all fields and to adapt them to the highest standards in everything related to the search and examination of patents, both with regard to international applications and Israel applications." One can't disagree with that sentiment, and there are certainly examiners in Israel who already work at that level, but there are many who aren't there yet, and one would have hoped that the upgrade in standards would have occurred BEFORE going online as a PCT search authority, as a predicate thereto rather than as a consequence thereof - especially since there's no guarantee that search quality and reporting will improve as a result of this change in status. On the other hand, there are many Israeli applicants for whom the quality of the PCT search is not of great importance, and who will welcome the option for a lower-cost alternative to the search fees charged by the EPO (which are generally a worthwhile investment) or the USPTO (which often are not), an option that hitherto has not been available to them.
The second issue is that the announcement is silent as to whether or not filers using the Israel RO will now be precluded from using the EPO or USPTO as a search authority. For applicants for whom the search is important, such as applicants who value patent protection in those jurisdictions and who are willing to pay high search fees now in exchange for reduced search fees upon national phase entry, it would be a pity to lose the opportunity to have the PCT search conducted at these patent offices.