On December 20, the Israel PTO's electronic patent filing system is slated to go online. This should be welcome news, and in general it is, but...well, we're not going to rain on the parade in this post. Instead, we want to mention one of the nice features of the system, one that was mentioned at explanatory sessions held at the ILPTO earlier this week: from Sunday, it will be possible for users of the electronic filing system to file color drawings as a matter of right as part of the their patent application.
Considering how scientific journals have been including color photographs and drawings for decades, it's stunning that the patent world hasn't completely caught up with this. You don't have have to have worked with stained cells or fluorescent probes to know that the ability to present data in color is not only useful, in some cases it's indispensible.
The USPTO allows color drawings in patent applications, but one has to petition (with a fee) for the USPTO to accept the color drawings - and if you've ever petitioned for color drawings in a provisional application, you've no doubt been disappointed by the USPTO's lack of response. The EPO allows the filing of color drawings, but then renders them in b/w. And for all the good things about the PCT system in general and ePCT in particular, WIPO still can't get its act together to allow color drawings in PCT applications.
So it's nice to know that on this front, the Israel PTO will now be a world leader.
We're not sure what will become of Israel patent applications containing color drawings when those applications are used as priority documents for, say PCT filings, but that really is WIPO's problem, not the ILPTO's.
Powerpoint slides from the informational sessions are available here (in Hebrew only).