By Donald Zuhn —

Further to our earlier report, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provided more details on Wednesday regarding the addition of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) to the Priority Document Exchange (PDX) program.  In particular, the USPTO announced that for U.S. applications filed on or after July 28, 2007, the USPTO will automatically attempt to electronically retrieve a copy of any JPO priority document claimed in the Oath, Declaration, or Application Data Sheet, to which priority is claimed in a U.S. application.  For U.S. applications filed before July 28, 2007, applicants must file a request (form PTO/SB/38) for the USPTO to retrieve a copy of the JPO priority document.  To transmit U.S. priority documents to the JPO, the U.S. priority document must (a) be published or patented or (b) have cleared national security review.  For the second category of U.S. priority documents, applicants must also submit written authorization to transmit the priority document (use of form PTO/SB/39 is recommended).