SIPO Offers Digital Access Service for Priority Documents (March 2012)

The State Intellectual Property Office of the PRC (SIPO) has started operating as Depositing Office and Accessing Office under Digital Access Service for Priority Documents (DAS) of the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) from March 2012.

http://www.sipo.gov.cn/pdoc/das/

This FREE service offers a simple and secure alternative to filing paper copies of priority documents with multiple Patent Offices. It enables an applicant claiming priority to request an Accessing Office to retrieve an electronic copy of the priority document from a Depositing Office via a secure database at WIPO. By participating in the scheme, the applicant needs only to authorize the Accessing Office, via a web portal of WIPO with a unique Access code, to have access to the priority document deposited. This saves the applicant the expense and effort normally associated with providing paper certified priority documents to every Accessing Office.

To accommodate the new measures, we apply the following adjustments in our services: 

When you instruct us to file a corresponding application in China under DAS, we need you to authorize SIPO to be one of the Accessing Offices; or else, we need you to kindly forward us the “DAS Notification: confirmation of Access Code” of this application. Only after this step is confirmed, we will request with SIPO to obtain an electronic copy of the priority document, and you won’t need to send us the paper copies of certified priority documents.

If you request SIPO as the Depositing Office or request to retrieve priority application filed with SIPO, we would help to request with SIPO to create a priority document and electronically transfer it to WIPO via a secure data exchange. WIPO will then acknowledge receipt of the document by supplying the applicant with the Access Code. With this code, the applicant will be able to authorize other participating Patent Offices to have access to the priority document.

We also offer service to withdraw the electronic copy of a priority document from the SIPO’s DAS database after it has been deposited or retrieved.

For the aforesaid services, the applicant will be required to provide the following information: 

- Application number,

- Name of the application,

- Full name of the applicant,

- Identity certificate of the applicant,

- Name, address and E-mail address for DAS service,

- Priority number and date,

- Name of the Depositing Office, and 

- Power of Attorney.

Please be advised that SIPO’s DAS service covers invention and utility model applications filed under Paris Convention only. It is not applicable to the China national phase of a PCT application. 

Also, the DAS service can only be operated between SIPO and the Patent Offices of Australia, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, International Bureau, Japan, Korea, United States of America, China, Denmark and Sweden as of March 2012. For updates, please visit 

http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/priority_documents/Offices.html

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to assist.