EUROPEAN PATENTOFFICE

IP5 GLOBAL DOSSIER:
SCOPE, CONTENT, AVAILABILITY AND PERFORMANCEAt the 2014 IP5 Heads and Industry meeting in Busan, Korea, the first IP5 Global
Dossier implementations were launched for public use by EPO and SIPO; and by
2016, the file wrappers of all IP5 Offices could be accessed through the Global
Dossier services of any single IP5 Office. Overall, the Global Dossier enables users
to view the online patent dossiers for 2.5 million new patent applications filed eachyear at the IP5 offices. These may be viewed either in the original language or in
English, via the EPO’s Espacenet or EP Register, JPO’s One Portal Dossier, KIPO’s
One Portal Dossier, SIPO’s China and Global Patent Examination Information
Inquiry, USPTO’s Global Dossier services.
The scope of the IP5 Global Dossier has been further extended via the WIPO CASE
system to include the file wrappers of the patent offices of Australia, Canada, Israel,the UK, and WIPO IB (PCT), and these are gradually being included in the individual
IP5 Offices’ public Global Dossier services.
At the IP5 Global Dossier Task Force Meeting on 18 January 2017 at the EPO inMunich, IP5 Industry requested a document presenting an overview of the scope,
content, availability, timeliness and performance of the IP5 Global Dossier initiatives
at the IP5 Offices. This document addresses these topics and provides a relevant
indication of the quality and performance of the tool. It also offers information onfuture improvements.
Table of Contents:
I.

Scope of Global Dossier coverage (Dossier types and date ranges)

II.

Content of each GD File Wrapper (completeness)

III.

Availability of each IP5 GD service

IV.

Maximum capacity of each IP5 GD service

V.

Timeliness of document additions

VI.

Approximate response times

VII.

ANNEXESI

Scope of Global Dossier coverage(Dossier types and date ranges)

The following table gives an overview of the dossier types available from each
Office, and the date ranges of dossiers available for each type. Furthermore, anindication is given of the languages available, and the Machine Translation (MT)service used to supply the documents in English.
The following overview applies as at 01 March 2017.
PatentDossier type
Date rangeoffice(filing date)
EP and PCT patentAll (1977-)
EPO

Languages available
Original EN-DE-FR

applications

JP and PCT patentapplications and utility models
KR and PCT patentapplications and Utility models>=01-07-2003

JP / EN (JPO MT)>=01-01-1999

KR / EN (KIPO MT)

SIPO

CN and PCT patentapplications1>=10-02-2010

CN / EN (SIPO MT)

USPTO

US and PCT patentapplications>=01-01-2003

EN

JPO
KIPO

Not all WIPO CASE “Providing offices” have agreed to public access for all accessing offices. The
following indicates the scope of online file wrappers made publicly available via WIPO CASE (as at01-01-2017) at each IP5 Offices’ GD.2 See the WIPO CASE internet pages for details of publicavailability: http://www.wipo.int/case/en/
PatentDossier type
Date range
Languages IP5 GD services
providing publicoffice(filing date)available
access to WIPO
CASE Data
PCTapplications
Publication>=1978PCT
EPO, JPO
PCT
Publication
Languages
Patent applications
With examination
Original ENEPO, JPO
CIPO
report >= 01-08-2015
FR
Patent applications>=01-01-2006
ENJPO
IP-AUS

Note: not all patent application and utility model numbers support active deep links.
See Annex for details of kind codes and links.
Machine Translation services:
The MT services at all IP5 Offices and WIPO are regularly updated according to theschedules of the IP5 Offices and their MT service providers, to provide a continualquality improvement.

1

According to SIPO’s legal framework, utility models are subject to preliminary examination prior topublication. Dossier information of utility models is not considered by SIPO to support work sharing.
Therefore this is not included in the OPD / GD.
2As from 08-11-2016, EPO’s Global Dossier includes WIPO IB (PCT) and CIPO online file wrappers.

II

Content of each GD File Wrapper

The documents visible in the IP5 Offices’ file wrappers in the Global Dossier areapproximately identical to the online file wrappers available at each IP5 Office, withsome minor exceptions (see Annex II).
The file wrappers from “Providing offices” to the WIPO CASE system are varied inscope, as WIPO CASE was originally devised to share mainly search andexamination results via the Vancouver Group offices (CIPO, IP-AUS, UK IPO), rather
than present the entire dossiers; therefore the actual file wrapper content varies fromIPO to IPO, but includes at least search and examination reports. Details areincluded in Annex II. This scope is gradually being expanded.

III

Availability of each IP5 GD service

The following table gives a general overview of when the GD services are NOT
available from a particular “Providing office”. See “Annex III” for complete
information.
Patent officeService unavailable
hours for GD Dossier
access service

Holidays when Service is unavailable.
(Full details of all holidays and planned
unavailability is given in Annex III).

EPO

Sunday: 06:00-11:00

Available except during the usual unavailable
hours or unexpected problems. There may befurther planned outages for maintenance. These
are announced on the EPO’s website.

JPO

Saturday: 07:00 – 24:00
Holiday after any weekday:
07:00 – 24:00
Sunday: 00:00 – 24:00
Holiday after any Sunday:
00:00 – 24:00
Holiday after any holiday:
00:00 – 24:00
Monday: 00:00 – 08:00
Weekday after any holiday:
00:00 – 08:00

KIPOSIPO
USPTO
WIPO CASE

Regular maintenance:
A few minutes in 04:00 –04:15 everyday
Wednesday: 18:00-19:00
Sunday: 00:01-09:00 21:0024:00//None(Service availability may varyas per each providing office)(Time references are all in local time).

See left.

OPD service is available on holidays except
when system maintenance are required or
unexpected problems
Services are available on holidays except whenoccasional maintenance are required or
unexpected problems
No scheduled maintenance on holidays for2017.
No scheduled maintenance on holidays for 2017

IVMaximum capacity of each IP5 GD service

The IP5 Offices have mostly defined a maximum accessing or providing limit, toprevent abuse and/or issues raised by overburdening the IT architecture. Only KIPO
and USPTO provide no limit as “Providing offices”. The following table provides anoverview of the type of providing capacity allowed by each Office. Examples: As an “Accessing office”, the EPO will allow its public users to access e.g.
USPTO dossiers up to the limit provided by the USPTO. If an Office does not
specify a maximum, then the EPO will allow up to a certain number of filewrapper accesses (Table of Contents, or any particular document) per periodof time for all users’ accesses combined. SIPO will allow a certain number ofaccesses per day and potentially per Office.
 As a “Providing office”, the EPO will allow other Offices to access EPO
online file wrappers up to a maximum of a certain number of accesses perperiod of time per Office.
The below information is generalised to avoid presenting information to users whomay wish to circumvent the limits imposed. Users are unlikely to reach these limits
under normal circumstances. Should individual users however have issues, they
could consider contacting their IP5 Office directly.
OfficeIPO as “AccessingOffice”

IPO as “Providing Office”

EPO as...

Either the limit imposed by
the Providing Office,otherwise a maximum limit
defined by the EPO pertime period

Limit per office per timeperiod

JPO as...

A limit per time period

KIPO as...

A limit per time period

Limit per day for all
sources
No current limit

SIPO as...

A limit per time period

USPTO as...

A limit per time period

WIPO CASE3
WIPO CASE The limit provided by each
“Providing office”
as ...
Otherwise no current limit

3Limit per office per timeperiod
No current limit

No current limitWIPO CASE does not itself limit the capacity for “Accessing” or “Providing” offices, but each
“Providing office” in WIPO CASE may set its own limits.

V

Timeliness of document additions

Documents may not be immediately visible via the GD services. Delays may be due
to scanning, formalities procedures, and exchange of data between services, as wellas other legal and procedural restrictions.
OfficeIncoming documents
Outgoing
Comments
documents
Incoming documents are
Outgoing
Identical to availability via EPO’sEPO
available once they havebeen manually checked by aFormalities Officer.

JPO[Online submission]
By the next day ofsubmission by applicants
after automatic formality
check.

documents areavailable once
they areconsidered as
officiallydispatched.
[Online andNon-onlinedispatch]
By the next dayof dispatch.

online filing.

Identical to availability via
KIPO’s online filing.

PCT documents are also subject toPCT legal and procedural
requirements.

[Non-online submission]
Approximately two weeks
from submission byapplicants.

KIPO

Incoming documents areavailable once they havebeen manually checked by aFormalities Officer.

Outgoing
documents areavailable once
they areconsidered as
officiallydispatched.

SIPO

Incoming documents areavailable after formality
procedures.

Outgoing
documents areavailable once
they areofficiallydispatched.

USPTO

Incoming documents areavailable immediately uponentry to the filewrapper.

Outgoing
documents areavailable once
they areconsidered as
officiallydispatched.

Office

Incoming documents

Outgoing
documents

Comments

PCT

Incoming documents areavailable when each international
application is published.

Outgoing
documents areavailable wheneach international
application ispublished.

Normally, international
publication takes place every
Thursday except when theInternational Bureau is
closed for business.

CIPO

Incoming documents areavailable by the following day ofreceipt of them from CIPO.

Outgoing
documents areavailable by thefollowing day ofreceipt of themfrom CIPO.

IP-AUS

Incoming documents areavailable immediately upon entry
to the IP-AUS’s file wrapper.

Incoming
documents areavailable
immediately uponentry to the IPAUS’s filewrapper.

VI

Approximate response times

Preliminary results:
Brief tests have been performed at each IP5 Office, accessing file wrappers from allother providing offices. These tests have been repeated on different days to help
overcome the effects of caching.
The performance of the global dossier is dependent on many factors, including thecapacity of the Providing Office, the actual current user accessing load, the internet
load between the countries, and any cache either on server services or on local
workstations etc. etc. The actual download times can therefore only provide a very
general indication of performance, but might indicate where any issues lie.
These tests show that, across the IP5 Offices, access times to any Table of Contents
are generally less than 10 seconds, and access to any particular document generally
less than 20 seconds, even with Machine Translation.
First results indicate therefore that the response times for the online services acrossthe IP5 Offices and WIPO are within reasonable limits to view both a Table ofContents and individual documents.
These results can only provide a general indication, and are unlikely to be reliably
reproducible. Reproducible tests would only be possible with automated services
which would require significant development.
It is proposed that Industry might wish to identify areas where performance is clearly
an issue, and could be considered a priority. The IP5 Offices could then liaise withIndustry to decide next steps.

VII

ANNEXES

Annex I:

Scope of Global Dossier coverage (Dossier types / date ranges)

All document types and date ranges in detailed “section I” should be available,with the exception of CIPO dossiers, for which the following conditions apply:
CIPO file wrappers are only present if:- If after August 2015 a patent application has documents added or modified in therepository, since the last daily export *AND* the patent has a log 16 (R30(2)Examiner Requisition), it is eligible for export to WIPO CASE.
There is therefore no file wrapper available for:i)Applications that are allowed by an examiner at the first action (i.e. there is noexamination report).
ii)
Applications that are allowed by an examiner after August 2015 where theexamination report(s) were dated before August 2015 and none of theaforementioned document types were added or modified before allowance.
iii)
Applications that were allowed or went to final action and had aCommissioners Decision before August 2015.
iv)
Applications where documents are added or modified in the repository, suchas claim amendments or a request for examination, but there has not yet been an
examiner’s report (log 16).

The following document gives a summary of the dossier types and ranges at IP5Offices, and also of the “deep linking” that may be applied to each IP5 dossier type:

GD Content V2.1
04-05-2017.docx

Annex II:

Content of each GD File Wrapper

The documents visible in the IP5 Offices’ file wrappers in the Global Dossier areidentical to the online file wrappers available on each IP5 Office website, with someminor exceptions. These are detailed below:
IP5OfficeContent available via GlobalDossier

EPO

Identical to public online fileinspection.
The file wrapper includes all
documents contained in thepublic part of the file.

JPOKIPO

SIPO

USPTO

NPL citations are not available
due to copyright limitations.
Identical to online file wrapper
available at JPO website (JPlatPat).

Exceptions – available via nononline file inspection but notonline / GD
NPL citations may be viewed only
as part of the physical on-site fileinspection.

NPL is basically available via nononline file inspection with some
exceptions relating to copyrightissues.

NPL citations are not available
due to copyright limitations.
Identical to public online fileinspection.
The file wrapper includes all
documents contained in thepublic part of the file.
Identical to public online fileinspection. The file wrapper
includes all documents
contained in substantial
examination and re-examination
procedures.
Identical to public online fileinspection.
The file wrapper includes all
documents contained in thepublic part of the file.
The USPTO does not provide
copies of copyrighted NPL on
Global Dossier due to copyrightissues.

According to SIPO’s Examination
Guideline, specifically according toSection 5.2, Chapter 4, Part 5, only
those specified therein are madepublic.
The USPTO provides certified
copies of entire file histories,including copyrighted NPL, tomembers of the public, for a fee,pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 9 and 37
C.F.R. § l .19(b)(1). The USPTO
considers this copying to beprotected by the doctrine of fairuse.

The file wrappers from “Providing offices” to the WIPO CASE system are varied inscope, as WIPO CASE was originally devised to share mainly search andexamination results via the Vancouver Group offices (CIPO, IP-AUS, UK IPO). The

actual file wrapper content varies from IPO to IPO. Details are included in thefollowing, extracted from the WIPO CASE User Guide, Annex 2. This scope isgradually being expanded.

WIPO CASE User
Guide Revision 2_2 AnAnnex III:

Availability of each IP5 GD service

The following Excel table includes details of all known and planned downtimes. Thetime references are all in local time.

Copy ofOPD-SLA_Annex A_v

Plans toward a 24/365 service availability:
The IP5 Offices summarise their plans for increasing availability towards 24 hours /365 days per year as follows:
EPO: The EPO cannot yet confirm the completion date for this extension.

JPO: The JPO plans to provide 24/365 service hopefully in 2019.

KIPO: Dualizing the KIPO OPD web server is scheduled for implementation
by end 2017, after which KIPO could provide 24/365 services.

SIPO: SIPO provides 24/365 services except when occasional maintenance isrequired or unexpected problems emerge.

USPTO: The USPTO maintains 24/365 service availability.

WIPO: WIPO provides 24/365 service except when occasional maintenanceis required or unexpected problems emerge.