Survey on the Implementation and Promotion of WIPO Standard ST.22

Response submitted by Austria in 2011

The present questionnaire addresses issues concerning WIPO Standard ST.22 (Recommendation for the authoring of patent applications for the purpose of facilitating optical character recognition (OCR)) and patent applications submitted on paper or submitted electronically (e-filed) but having the text body of the application submitted in image form (e.g., PDF or TIFF images). Even if your Office does not perform OCR on its documents, please respond to the questions which are applicable.

A revised version of WIPO Standard ST.22 was adopted by the Standards and Documentation Working Group (SDWG) on November 21, 2008. It is available at: /standards/en/pdf/03-22-01.pdf

The results of the survey will be presented for consideration by the Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS).

Please take note that some questions might not be displayed depending on the response(s) to preceding question(s). This could cause gaps in numbering of displayed questions and sections.

Section 1: Patent filing in your Office

1. Does your Office accept patent applications submitted on paper or submitted electronically but having the text body of the application submitted in image form (e.g., PDF or TIFF images)?

Yes

2. If applicable, please indicate the percentage, with respect to the total number of applications received by your Office, and the year of reference (e.g., 60% in 2008), of the following

3. Does your Office perform optical character recognition (OCR) on patent applications?

Yes

Please comment if necessary:

Patents:
for A-publication a purely automatic OCR via FineReader; since June 2011;
for B Publications:
- OCR via FineReader with manual choice of what/how to OCR;
- after Text Recognition a manual text correction; formating in MS-Word;
- printing;
- 100% of the documents checked by comparing origial paper and prepared document;
- corrections of detected errors.
Utiliy Models: the same procedure as for Patents - B Documents

Section 2: Promotion and use of WIPO Standard ST.22

4. Has your Office adapted the filing guidance that it provides to applicants to take into account the recommendations of the revised version of WIPO Standard ST.22?

Partially

Please comment if necessary:

Since 2011, the filing guidance Regulation"Verordnung des Präsidenten des Patentamtes über die Verfahren und die Publikationen im Bereich des Patentamtes (Patentamtsverordnung 2006 - PAV)" in the chapter"Gemeinsame Formvorschriften für die Beschreibung, die Patentansprüche (Ansprüche), die Zusammenfassung und die Zeichnungen" is based on recommendations of WIPO ST.22. This paragraph also refers to WIPO ST.22. http://www.patentamt.at/Media/PAV_2011.pdf.

http://www.patentamt.at/Media/PAV2011.pdf contains only the passages new/changed in comparision to the previous version of the regualtion.

5. Has your Office promoted the use by applicants of the recommendations provided by WIPO Standard ST.22?

Yes

Please comment if necessary:

In addition to the above mentioned recommendations in the"Verordnung", a colleague has translated relevant passages of WIPO ST.22 in German. This translation is also published on our website http://www.patentamt.at/Media/PB2010010I.pdf
as an attachement to the Autrian Gazette October 2010

6. If applicable, what publication means has your Office used to promote the use of WIPO Standard ST.22 (e.g., article in the official gazette, amendment of Office's filing recommendations, publication on the Office's website, newsletters)?

Please specify the details (e.g., entry or section of the official gazette, URL of the location where the announcement is available):

- Publication of the german translation in the Austrian Gazette (October 2010)
- WIPO ST.22. has influenced passages of the regulation concerning the form of Patent & Utility Model applications

7. Has your Office promoted WIPO Standard ST.22 in any other way (e.g., conferences, information circulars)?

No

Section 3: Implementation of WIPO Standard ST.22

This Section 3 refers to the applications that are filed on paper or electronically (e-filed) but having the text body of the application submitted in image form (e.g., PDF or TIFF images).

8. Has your Office noticed any improvement in the quality of the formal presentation and layout of the applications that follow the recommendations of WIPO Standard ST.22?

Little improvement

Please comment if necessary:

The reason to change the regulation was that some applicants started to submit texts in font 7 or less. Our old regulation did not forsee such behaviour. With the new regulation we can ask the applicant to submit the application in a"readable" way.

9. Has your Office noticed any improvement in the OCR quality output that resulted from the applicants' awareness of WIPO Standard ST.22?

No improvement

Please comment if necessary:

very few cases; furthermore applications submitted since begin of 2011 are not so far in their procedure that we OCR them;

10. Has your Office noticed any decrease in the OCR costs that have resulted from the applicants' awareness of WIPO Standard ST.22?

No decrease

11. Does your Office use the non-conformity to WIPO Standard ST.22 as a reason to request replacement sheets of the application?

Yes

Please comment if necessary:

depending on the degree of non-conformity

12. If applicable, please indicate the percentage of applications for which replacement sheets are requested with respect to the total number of applications (filed on paper or e-filed) having the text body of the application submitted in image form, and the period of time of reference:

(e.g., 15% in the first half of 2009)