The notice states:

Effective Dec. 1, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Digital Access Service (DAS) will manage electronic retrievals of priority documents between the USPTO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), in accordance with the WIPO DAS agreement established on April 20, 2009.

Some important details:

  • There is no fee for this service.
  • Participation for a particular application is voluntary.
  • The certified copy requirement is considered satisfied when a priority document is retrieved electronically via the WIPO DAS service, during pendency of the U.S. application.
  • The KIPO deposits via the WIPO DAS service certain patent, utility model, and industrial design applications.
  • For applications filed on or after Dec. 1, the applicant must provide the WIPO DAS access code associated with the priority application that is to be retrieved via the WIPO DAS service, in addition to the priority claim. The priority claim includes the country code (KR for Korea), application number, and filing date.
  • The WIPO DAS access code increases security as a third validation point for each application along with the application number and filing date.

More information will be available on the USPTO Electronic Priority Document Exchange (PDX) Program page of the USPTO website. Read the complete notice.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.