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§ 703 Filing Requirements; Basic Common Standard - Appendix AI Administrative Instructions Under the PCT
§ 703 Filing Requirements; Basic Common Standard
(a) An international application may, subject to this Part, be filed in electronic form if the receiving Office has notified the International Bureau in accordance with Rule 89bis.1(d) that it is prepared to receive international applications in such form.
(b) An international application filed in electronic form shall be:
(i) in an electronic document format that has been specified by the receiving Office in accordance with Annex F or that complies with the basic common standard;
(ii) filed by a means of transmittal that has been specified by the receiving Office in accordance with Annex F or that complies with the basic common standard;
(iii) in the form of an electronic package, appropriate to the means of transmittal, that has been specified by the receiving Office in accordance with Annex F or that complies with the basic common standard;
(iv) prepared and filed using electronic filing software that has been specified by the receiving Office in accordance with Annex F or that complies with the basic common standard; and
(v) free of viruses and other forms of malicious logic in accordance with Annex F or that complies with the basic common standard.
(c) An international application filed in electronic form shall, for the purposes of Article 14(1)(a)(i), be signed by the applicant using a type of electronic signature that has been specified by the receiving Office in accordance with Annex F or, subject to Section 704(g), that complies with the basic common standard.
(d) A receiving Office which has not notified the International Bureau in accordance with Rule 89.1(d) that it is prepared to receive international applications in electronic form may nevertheless decide in a particular case to receive an international application submitted to it in such form, in which case this Part shall apply accordingly.
(e) Any receiving Office may refuse to receive an international application submitted to it in electronic form if the application does not comply with paragraph (b), or may decide to receive the application.
(f) If, on 7 January 2002, the applicable national law and the technical systems of a national Office provide for the filing with it of national applications in electronic form according to requirements which are incompatible with any of items (ii) to (iv) of paragraph (b):
(i) the provisions concerned shall not apply in respect of the Office in its capacity as a receiving Office for as long as the incompatibility continues; and
(ii) the Office may instead provide for the filing with it of international applications in electronic form according to that national law and those technical systems; provided that the Office informs the International Bureau accordingly by the date on which the Office sends the International Bureau a notification under Rule 89.1(d) and in any case no later than 7 April 2002. The information received shall be promptly published by the International Bureau in the Gazette.
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