1823.01 Reference to Deposited Biological Material [R-07.2015]

REFERENCES TO DEPOSITED BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL IN THE CASE OF MICROBIOLOGICAL INVENTIONS

The PCT does not require the inclusion of a reference to a biological material and/or to its deposit with a depositary institution in an international application; it merely prescribes the contents of any “reference to deposited biological material” (defined as “particulars given... with respect to the deposit of biological material... or to the biological material so deposited”) which is included in an international application, and when such a reference must be furnished. It follows that the applicant may see a need to make such a reference only when it is required for the purpose of disclosing the invention claimed in the international application in a manner sufficient for the invention to be carried out by a person skilled in the art that is, when the law of at least one of the designated States provides for the making, for this purpose, of a reference to a deposited biological material if the invention involves the use of a biological material that is not available to the public. Any reference to a deposited biological material furnished separately from the description will be included in the publication of the international application.

A reference to a deposited biological material made in accordance with the requirements of the PCT must be regarded by each of the designated Offices as satisfying the requirements of the national law applicable in that Office with regard to the contents of such references and the time for furnishing them.

A reference may be made for the purposes of all designated States or for one or only some of the designated States. A reference is considered to be made for the purpose of all designated States unless it is expressly made for certain designated States only. References to different deposits may be made for the purposes of different designated States.

There are two kinds of indication which may have to be given with regard to the deposit of the biological material, namely:

• (A) indications specified in the PCT Regulations themselves; and
• (B) additional indications by the national (or regional) Office of (or acting for) a State designated in the international application and which have been published in the PCT Gazette; these additional indications may relate not only to the deposit of the biological material but also to the biological material itself.

The indications in the first category are:

(1) the name and the address of the depositary institution with which the deposit was made;

(2) the date of the deposit with that institution; and

(3) the accession number given to the deposit by that institution.

U.S. requirements include the name and address of the depository institution at the time of filing, the date of the deposit or a statement that the deposit was made on or before the priority date of the international application and, to the extent possible, a taxonomic description of the biological material. See Annex L of the PCT Applicant’s Guide.

The national laws of some of the national (or regional) Offices require that, besides indications concerning the deposit of a biological material, an indication be given concerning the biological material itself, such as, for example, a short description of its characteristics, at least to the extent that this information is available to the applicant. These requirements must be met in the case of international applications for which any such Office is a designated Office, provided that the requirements have been published in the PCT Gazette. Annex L of the PCT Applicant’s Guide indicates, for each of the national (or regional) Offices, the requirements (if any) of this kind which have been published.

If any indication is not included in a reference to a deposited biological material contained in the international application as filed, it may be furnished to the International Bureau within 16 months after the priority date unless the International Bureau has been notified (and, at least 2 months prior to the filing of the international application, it has published in the PCT Gazette) that the national law requires the indication to be furnished earlier. However, if the applicant makes a request for early publication, all indications should be furnished by the time the request is made, since any designated Office may regard any indication not furnished when the request is made as not having been furnished in time.

No check is made in the international phase to determine whether a reference has been furnished within the prescribed time limit. However, the International Bureau notifies the designated Offices of the date(s) on which indications, not included in the international application as filed, were furnished to it. Those dates are also mentioned in the publication of the international application. Failure to include a reference to a deposited biological material (or any indication required in such a reference) in the international application as filed, or failure to furnish it (or the indication) within the prescribed time limit, has no consequence if the national law does not require the reference (or indication) to be furnished in a national application. Where there is a consequence, it is the same as that which applies under the national law.

To the extent that indications relating to the deposit of a biological material are not given in the description, because they are furnished later, they may be given in the “optional sheet” provided for that purpose. If the sheet is submitted when the international application is filed, a reference to it should be made in the check list contained on the last sheet of the Request form. Should certain States be designated, e.g., Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, or Turkey , such a sheet must, if used, be included as one of the sheets of the description at the time of filing; otherwise the indications given in it will not be taken into account by the respective patent offices of those designated States in the national phase. Requirements of the various Offices are set forth in Annex L of the PCT Applicant’s Guide, available online at www.wipo.int/pct/en/appguide. If the sheet is furnished to the International Bureau later, it must be enclosed with a letter.

Each national (or regional) Office whose national law provides for deposits of biological material for the purposes of patent procedure notifies the International Bureau of the depositary institutions with which the national law permits such deposits to be made. Information on the institutions notified by each of those Offices is published by the International Bureau in the PCT Gazette.

A reference to a deposit cannot be disregarded by a designated Office for reasons pertaining to the institution with which the biological material was deposited if the deposit referred to is one made with a depositary institution notified by that Office. Thus, by consulting the PCT Gazette or Annex L of the PCT Applicant’s Guide, the applicant can be sure that he has deposited the biological material with an institution which will be accepted by the designated Office.

International Searching Authorities and International Preliminary Examining Authorities are not expected to request access to deposited biological material. However, in order to retain the possibility of access to a deposited biological material referred to in an international application which is being searched or examined by such an Authority, the PCT provides that the Authorities may, if they fulfill certain conditions, ask for samples. Thus, an Authority may only ask for samples if it has notified the International Bureau (in a general notification) that it may require samples and the International Bureau has published the notification in the PCT Gazette. The only Authority which has made such a notification (and thus the only Authority which may request samples) is the Japan Patent Office. If a sample is asked for, the request is directed to the applicant, who then becomes responsible for making the necessary arrangements for the sample to be provided.

The furnishing of samples of a deposit of a biological material to third persons is governed by the national laws applicable in the designated Offices. PCT Rule 13bis.6(b), however, provides for the delaying of any furnishing of samples under the national law applicable in each of the designated (or elected) Offices until the start of the national phase, subject to the ending of this “delaying effect” brought about by the occurrence of either of the following two events:

• (A) the applicant has, after international publication of the international application, taken the steps necessary to enter the national phase before the designated Office.
• (B) international publication of the international application has been effected, and that publication has the same effects, under the national law applicable in the designated Office, as the compulsory national publication of an unexamined national application (in other words, the international application has qualified for the grant of “provisional protection”).

1823.02 Filing Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid Sequence Listings in International Applications [R-01.2024]

[Editor Note: The PCT Rules and Administrative Instructions reproduced in this section are applicable to international applications, including national phase applications, having an international filing date on or after July 1, 2022. For international applications having an international filing date before July 1, 2022, the applicable rules may be found at: www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/pct/en/docs/texts/ pct-regs2020.pdf and the applicable instructions may be found at www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text/584509.]

I. REQUIREMENTS FOR SEQUENCE LISTINGS UNDER WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE STANDARD ST.26 (WIPO STANDARD ST.26)

[Editor Note: This subsection is applicable to all international applications, including national phase applications, having an international filing date on or after July 1, 2022, that disclose one or more nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences as defined in WIPO Standard ST.26.]

Patent applications that disclose a nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence(s) by enumeration of its residues, as defined in WIPO Standard ST.26, must present each sequence and associated sequence data in a standardized electronic eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format as a separate part of the specification. This standardized format is set forth in WIPO Standard ST.26 and applies to sequence listings in international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and in national and regional applications filed in the intellectual property offices (IPOs) of WIPO member states. As a result, a single sequence listing in compliance with WIPO Standard ST.26 can be prepared for use in all IPOs of WIPO member states.

Where an international application, filed under the PCT, contains a disclosure of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences that are required to be listed within a sequence listing, PCT Rule 5.2 requires that the description shall include a sequence listing part of the description complying with the standard provided for in the Administrative Instructions. In accordance with Section 208 of the Administrative Instructions, any sequence listing, whether forming part of the international application or not forming part of the international application, shall comply with Annex C of the Administrative Instructions. Where applicant has not provided a sequence listing in accordance with Annex C of the Administrative Instructions and the USPTO acts as International Searching Authority (ISA) or International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), the ISA/IPEA may invite applicant to furnish a sequence listing, with a late furnishing fee, under PCT Rule 13ter. This invitation will specify a time limit for a proper response. A proper response to such an invitation would include, the submission of a sequence listing in accordance with Annex C of the Administrative Instructions, the late furnishing fee specified in 37 CFR 1.445(a)(5), and a statement to the effect that the sequence listing does not go beyond the disclosure of the international application as filed. If a sequence listing compliant with WIPO Standard ST.26 has not been furnished to the ISA/IPEA within the time limit set forth in the invitation, the ISA/IPEA will only search/examine the international application to the extent that a meaningful search or examination can be performed without the sequence listing. See PCT Rule 13ter.1(d). Where the application discloses sequences that are required to be within a sequence listing, it is advisable for the applicant to submit a sequence listing compliant with WIPO Standard ST.26 together with the international application on the international filing date rather than to wait for an invitation by the International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority.

For a detailed discussion of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.26, see MPEP §§ 2412 - 2419, in particular MPEP § 2414.05.

For ease of access, WIPO Standard ST.26 can be found at: www.wipo.int/standards/en/ part_03_standards.html.

II. REQUIREMENTS FOR SEQUENCE LISTINGS UNDER WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE STANDARD ST.25 (WIPO ST.25)

[Editor Note: This subsection is only applicable to international applications, including national phase applications, having an international filing date before July 1, 2022, that disclose one or more nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences as defined in WIPO Standard ST.25.]

Where an international application discloses one or more nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences, the description must contain a sequence listing complying with the standard specified in the Administrative Instructions. A copy of the Administrative Instructions in force before July 1, 2022 can be found at: www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text/584509. The standard is set forth in detail in Annex C - Standard for the Presentation of Nucleotide and Amino Acid Sequence Listings in International Patent Applications Under the PCT. The standard allows the applicant to draw up a single sequence listing which is acceptable to all receiving Offices, International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities for the purposes of the international phase, and to all designated and elected Offices for the purposes of the national phase.

Under PCT Rule 5.2(a), the sequence listing must always be presented as a separate part of the description. When filing an international application (PCT) using the USPTO patent electronic filing system, the sequence listing part of the description may be submitted either as a single ASCII text file with a ".txt" extension (e.g., "seqlist.txt") or as a PDF file. Note that 100 megabytes is the size limit for submitting a sequence listing text file via the USPTO patent electronic filing system.

A single ASCII text file will serve both as the sequence listing part of the description under PCT Rule 5.2 and the electronic form under PCT Rule 13ter.1(a) in the absence of a PDF sequence listing file. The check list of the PCT Request (PCT/RO/101) provided via the USPTO patent electronic filing system together with the international application (PCT) must indicate that the sequence listing forms part of the international application. Furthermore, the statement as set forth in paragraph 4(v) of the AI Annex C (Administrative Instructions under the PCT, Annex C), that "the information recorded in electronic form furnished under PCT Rule 13ter is identical to the sequence listing as contained in the international application," is not required.

Submission of the sequence listing part of the description in a PDF file is not recommended because the applicant would also be required to supply a copy of the sequence listing in an ASCII text file to the appropriate authority for purposes of international search and/or international preliminary examination in accordance with paragraph 40 of AI Annex C. When a sequence listing is filed via the USPTO patent electronic filing system in a new PCT international application in both a PDF file and an ASCII text file, but the Request form Box No. IX does not indicate which one forms part of the international application, the PDF copy of the sequence listing will be considered to form part of the application and the ASCII text file will be considered an accompanying item for search purposes under PCT Rule 13ter.1(a) only.

In cases where a sequence listing does not meet the necessary requirements, such as it has been submitted in PDF format or .txt file does not comply with Annex C, the International Searching Authority and the International Preliminary Examining Authority may invite the applicant to furnish, within a fixed time limit, a sequence listing complying with the required standard. The invitation may also, in accordance with PCT Rule 13ter.1(c), request the payment of a late furnishing fee. Where such an invitation has been issued, the sequence listing and late fee must be submitted to the International Searching Authority or the International Preliminary Examining Authority. It is advisable for the applicant to submit a listing of the sequence in electronic form (text), if such a listing is required by the competent International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority, together with the international application rather than to wait for an invitation by the International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority.

The electronic form (text) is not mandatory in international applications to be searched by the United States International Searching Authority or examined by the United States International Preliminary Examining Authority. However, if an electronic form (text) of a sequence listing is not provided, a search or examination will be performed only to the extent possible in the absence of the electronic form (text). The U.S. sequence rules (37 CFR 1.821 - 1.825) and the PCT sequence requirements are substantively consistent. In this regard, full compliance with the requirements of the U.S. rules will generally ensure compliance with the applicable PCT requirements. However, the requirements of 37 CFR 1.821 through 37 CFR 1.825 are less stringent than the requirements of WIPO Standard ST.25. See MPEP § 2422, subsection II, MPEP § 2422.03(a), subsection IV, and MPEP § 2422.07 for information specific to filing sequence listings in international applications.

For a detailed discussion of the U.S. sequence rules, see MPEP §§ 2420 - 2429.

The calculation of the international filing fee for an international application (PCT), including a sequence listing, filed via the USPTO patent electronic filing system is determined based on the type of sequence listing file. A sequence listing filed in an ASCII text file will not be included in the sheet count of the international application (PCT). A sequence listing filed in a PDF file will be included in the sheet count of the international application (PCT). Therefore, the sheet count for an international application (PCT) filed via the USPTO patent electronic filing system containing both a PDF file and a text file sequence listing will be calculated to include the number of sheets of the PDF sequence listing.