About the List of Nucleic Acid and Amino Acid Sequences in case of Biotechnological Patent Applications
26 Apr 2024 | Newsletter
Due to the publication of WIPO ST.26 with effect from July 1, 2022, for all member countries of the PCT Treaty, the patent applications that include nucleotide sequences with at least 10 defined nucleotides and/or amino acid sequences with at least 4 defined amino acids, must file such sequences according to the ST.26 standard. WIPO has provided, through its web page, multiple tools to send said Standard and to make available to the users of the PCT system recommendations for its application and use (1).
The Standard applies to all member countries, not only for the applications filed under the PCT, but also for those filed in the Regional and National phase, either directly or under the Paris Convention. To comply with Standard ST.26, several Patent Offices such as the USPTO (2), EPO (3) and ONAPI (4) to mention a few, have made information available to users regarding its implementation, as well as to specify in which cases Standard ST.25 (previously used) or Standard ST.26 applies because of the transition process in the implementation of Standard ST.26.
The Mexican Industrial Property Institute adopted the criteria found below:
If the filing date of the international application is prior to July 1, 2022, you must provide the sequence listing according to WIPO Standard ST.25, in PDF format. If your application is not a PCT national phase but your claimed priority under the Paris Convention is dated prior to July 1, 2022, you must also use this choice.
If the filing date of the international application is on or after July 1, 2022, you must provide the sequence listing according to WIPO Standard ST.26, in XML format. If your application is not a PCT national phase but your claimed priority under the Paris Convention is dated on or after July 1, 2022, you must also use this choice. If your application is not processed under the PCT or the Paris Convention, i.e., it is a national application, you must also use this choice.
So far, the Institute has said nothing concerning WIPO Standard ST.26 recent version 1.6, which entered into force on July 1, 2023.
1 https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/news/2022/news_0039.html
2 https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/sequence-listing-resource-center/wipo-standard-st26-news
3 https://new.epo.org/en/applying/myepo-services/file-with-us/online-filing/auxiliary/bissap