WIPO’s latest PCT practice update confirms that The Bahamas deposited its instrument of accession on 19 May 2026 and will become bound by the Patent Cooperation Treaty on 19 August 2026, bringing the system to 159 Contracting States. Any international application filed on or after that date will automatically include the designation of The Bahamas under country code BS. The country has also made a declaration under Article 64(5), stating that it does not consider itself bound by Article 59 on the referral of inter-State disputes to the International Court of Justice.For applicants, the...

At the SIARC 2026 high-level programme held from 28 to 30 July 2026, OAPI Director General Denis Bohoussou announced a patent fee support scheme for applicants meeting specified conditions. Under the announced terms, patent registration-related charges would fall from CFA 1,000,000 to CFA 22,500, a reduction of 97.75%, while OAPI would cover 80% of annual maintenance fees for the first five years after grant. OAPI also issued Official Industrial Property Bulletin No. 10DM/2026 on 30 July, adding a fresh set of published rights and procedural notices to the week’s institutional...

In early May, WIPO renewed its warning to users of the PCT and Madrid systems after a wave of fraudulent emails sought payment of unofficial fees. The messages often imitate official wording, use misleading sender details, and claim that the recipient’s protection status has been compromised. Some appear to invoke the names of WIPO, the EPO, the EUIPO or national offices in the Americas, creating the impression that an urgent payment is needed to preserve an application, registration or renewal.The practical risk is straightforward: these emails target the moments when applicants are...

On 14 July 2026, the World Intellectual Property Organization announced that the PCT Assembly had approved the appointment of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Once operational, IMPI will become the 26th PCT International Authority and the third in Latin America and the Caribbean. In practical terms, it will be able to issue international search reports and written opinions, and to carry out international preliminary examination when...

In early August 2026, South Korea’s former Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), now elevated to the ministry-level Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP), moved to deepen its technical examination strategy for artificial intelligence and other future-growth technologies. The plan places AI, spatial computing and related strategic fields more prominently within examination capacity building, signalling an effort to make specialist patent examination a more active part of Korea’s innovation policy and international IP role.MOIP has also updated the fee charged in its capacity as a...

According to recent reporting by Asia IP, and as confirmed by official information released by the relevant authorities, from March 1, 2026, PCT applicants filing through IP Australia may designate the European Patent Office (EPO) or the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) as their International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), in addition to the previously available options of IP Australia and the Korean authority. For applicants using Australia as the receiving Office, this is more than a procedural update. It materially...

The UK government has announced that several Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fees applicable through the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) will change from 1 April 2026. Under the published schedule, the transmittal fee will be £100, the search fee £1,632, the international filing fee £1,242 for the first 30 pages, with an additional £14 for each page over 30, and the fee for restoration of priority will be £200. Reductions remain available for qualifying electronic filings. On its face, this is a routine fee update. In practice, however, the announcement matters for much more than...

WIPO’s March 2026 PCT Newsletter highlighted a cluster of procedural developments that deserve close practical attention. Beyond the extension of certain PCT-PPH pilots, three updates stand out for their operational impact: the Patent and Trademark Office of San Marino will become both a depositing and an accessing Office of the WIPO Digital Access Service (DAS) from 1 May 2026; the National Patent Office of Bahrain will begin receiving and processing international applications in electronic form via ePCT-Filing from 1 October 2026; and the Indonesian Culture Collection (InaCC), under...

On March 26, 2026, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that Commissioner Shen Changyu held bilateral talks with WIPO Director General Daren Tang on the latest developments in intellectual property and cooperation on Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs). In the meeting, CNIPA said it is studying the formulation of the national 15th Five-Year Plan for the protection and utilization of intellectual property as the top-level design for the next five years, and that China will continue to participate actively in global IP governance under the...

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization has announced an Accelerated Examination Track under the Harare Protocol for selected patent applications. The route covers PCT applications entering the ARIPO regional phase and direct patent filings where the invention relates to public health, agricultural technology or clean energy. For eligible cases, the stated examination target is 12 to 18 months.The measure is a practical signal that ARIPO wants scarce examination capacity to move faster where regional development needs are more visible. Applicants should not treat...

For applicants entering Canada from the PCT route with an AI system listed as the sole inventor in the international phase, CIPO’s current national-phase guidance, compliance framework and the latest Canadian inventorship position now point in the same direction. A pure AI inventor designation is not going to carry a case smoothly into Canada. If inventor details, entitlement statements or applicant status do not line up with what Canadian law requires, the file is likely to run into a compliance notice before anything else moves very far.The practical importance of this development is...

Argentina’s debate over international filing systems has moved back into the foreground. The U.S.–Argentina reciprocal trade and investment agreement set a 2026 congressional timetable for the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and placed the Madrid Protocol and the Hague Agreement on the list of treaties to be sent to Congress before the end of 2027. At the same time, a recent committee document in the Chamber of Deputies shows that PCT is no longer just a dormant legacy bill; it is back inside an active policy discussion, with pro-accession arguments also pointing to the practical value of...

At AI Everything x GITEX Kenya 2026 in Nairobi, held from May 19 to 21, WIPO moved intellectual property out of the legal back office and into the middle of the fundraising conversation. Its post-event account makes the point plainly: the spotlight was not only on tools such as the PCT system, trademarks and WIPO IP Diagnostics, but on a harder commercial question—whether an AI company can turn its technology and brand into identifiable, scalable and transferable assets that investors can underwrite.That message lands differently in Africa’s current startup climate. WIPO selected ten...

Cape Verde’s new Industrial Property Code is now in force, and the significance of that change is becoming clearer as post-entry commentary gathers pace in June 2026. This is not a routine legislative refresh. It materially widens what can be protected, removes a procedural burden that had long frustrated trade mark applicants, and gives cross-border rights holders a more usable framework for integrating Cape Verde into regional and international filing plans.The headline shifts are easy to list but harder to price correctly. Non-traditional trade marks such as multimedia, motion and...

Algeria’s patent office, INAPI, has sent a clear practice signal in mid-June 2026: amendment deadlines will now be enforced strictly rather than elastically. Industry reporting indicates that amendments to patent applications must, in principle, be filed within one month from the filing date, while PCT cases entering the Algerian national phase face a one-month window from national phase entry. After that, only minor error corrections are likely to be entertained, and substantive changes will be refused and kept out of the examination track.What makes this more than a technical diary...

UNECA has sharpened the debate around Africa’s frontier-tech economy. In its 2026 policy messaging on innovation and emerging technologies, the issue is no longer framed as a simple shortage of research activity. The harder point is that too much potentially valuable science still reaches journals, conferences and pitch decks before it reaches a defensible commercialization pathway.That warning lands differently in Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria, where research capacity, startup activity and investor attention already cluster. For nanotechnology, advanced materials, biotech platforms and...

Israel’s 2026 patent fee schedule is now being applied in practice, and the change is broader than a routine tariff update. The filing fee, excess-claim fee and later renewal tranches now sit in clearer view at the start of the prosecution timeline, forcing applicants to think earlier about claim count, drafting scope and whether Israel is still a priority market at national-phase entry.The more important message in July 2026 is procedural. Israel continues to apply a hard 30-month deadline for PCT national-phase entry, and that applies under both Article 22 and Article 39 routes. Recent...

On 30 June 2026, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) used the aftermath of the Philippines’ sixth WTO Trade Policy Review to put two strands in the same frame: its position inside the PCT system and its capability-building work for examining inventions involving artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. That pairing matters. It shows the Philippines is no longer presenting intellectual property as a narrow domestic legal file, but as part of the country’s wider trade, innovation and digital-governance infrastructure.For businesses, the significance...

On 9 July 2026, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) issued a second-half practice and fee compliance notice. On the trademark side, office-led revocation proceedings for marks unused for five consecutive years are now operating as a routine mechanism, increasing exposure for defensive registrations that lack a credible record of genuine use. Rights holders should assemble evidence tied to the relevant goods or services, dates and commercial channels before a challenge arises. For patents, the office reiterated that the sharply increased 2026 official fees—reported at...

In its opening statement to the 68th WIPO Assemblies on 8 July 2026, the United States placed the modernisation of global filing systems high on the agenda. It urged WIPO members to remove outdated requirements in the Madrid System that limit its usefulness for trademark owners, and argued that resources generated through the PCT should be reinvested in the system, including a unified dashboard and portal for managing global intellectual property portfolios with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. These were policy proposals from one member state, not adopted WIPO...