Furnishing your priority documents during a PCT application

This page describes applicant options for providing the document(s) required to support one or more priority claims for an application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Note: "applicant" on this page refers to the definition under PCT Rule 2.1

Options for furnishing your priority documents at the time of filing an international application

PCT Rule 17.1 requires that the applicant submit priority documents to the International Bureau (IB) or receiving Office, providing three options for doing so, as well as relevant timelines (generally no later than 16 months from the priority date or before the date of international publication of the international application). Note: more than one of these options may need to be used, depending on the number of documents and their origins.

HTML representation of Box No. VI from the PCT request form

Box No. VI Priority claim and document

The priority of the following earlier application(s) is hereby claimed:
Filing date of earlier applications (day/month/year) Number of earlier application Where earlier application is
national application: country or member of WTO regional application: regional Office international application: receiving Office
item (1)        
item (2)        
item (3)        

Note: This table is a representation of a fillable form. The empty cells in this table represent the fillable boxes in the form.

Furnishing the priority document(s):

Row 1

Row 2





The first option is to provide certified copies of the priority documents identified in the first section of Box No. VI to the receiving Office under the authority of PCT Rule 17.1(a).

The second option, for applications where the receiving office is also the office where the earlier filed national or international application was filed, the applicant can request the receiving Office prepare and transmit to the IB a certified copy of the earlier filed application under the authority of PCT Rule 17.1(b).

  • This is done by checking the first box in Row 1 above and identifying the appropriate priority documents for which this option is being used. CIPO, as receiving Office, under PCT Rule 17.1(b), will prepare and submit the identified priority documents to the IB.
  • This is a simple step that can be accomplished by filling out this section on the Request or in ePCT (Section VI-1) when filing electronically.
  • CIPO charges a fee for this service. Current information on costs can be found under the Fees in respect to information or copies dropdown of the Patent Fees page.
  • The CIPO client service centre will reach out by phone for payment of this fee.

The third option, for earlier filed national or international applications that were filed at DAS (Digital Access Service) depositing offices (including CIPO), the priority documents can be furnished to the IB for an international application by requesting that the IB obtain a copy from a digital library under PCT Rule 17.1(b-bis).

Under the third option, at the time of filing an international application, using DAS to provide your priority document to the IB is a two-step process:

Steps for using DAS to provide your priority document to the IB

Step 1: Prior to filing, the first step of providing an earlier filed application (either a national application or international application) as a priority document for your international application using DAS is to deposit that document to DAS.

  • If the priority document has been previously deposited to DAS by CIPO or another office, this step can be skipped.
  • At CIPO, uploading priority documents to DAS is not automatic. It can be accomplished by requesting that the document be uploaded using the DAS request form available on the CIPO Order IP documents webpage.
  • At CIPO, this service is free and we aim to complete these requests within three business days.
  • Once the priority document is uploaded to DAS by CIPO, the IB will provide a confirmation email containing your certificate of availability and a four-digit alphanumeric access code; this code will be required for the next step. For general information on WIPO DAS, see the DAS home page and the PCT Applicant's Guide, Annex B.

Step 2: Request that the IB obtain a copy of that document from DAS by indicating the DAS access code for each priority document by checking the boxes in Row 2 above in your paper request or in section VI-2 when creating the request through ePCT. For priority documents available via DAS, the applicant is required to provide the access code.

  • If using ePCT a real time check occurs, and this option is only available when the document is already available via DAS.
  • Priority documents can also be furnished after filing through ePCT.

For support on DAS in ePCT, applicants should contact WIPO ePCT Support.

Steps to furnish your priority documents to the IB after filing your application, using ePCT and DAS

Under PCT Rule 17.1 the same three options discussed above continue to exist after filing, subject to the relevant deadlines. This section gives the procedure to follow under the third option when performed after filing through ePCT. Under Rule 17.1 (b-bis) of the PCT the applicant can, prior to the date of international publication of the international application, request the IB, to obtain priority documents from DAS.

Furnishing priority documents to the IB via DAS is a 2-step process

Step 1: Deposit your document to DAS

The first step of providing an earlier filed application (either a national application or international application) as a priority document for your international application using DAS is to deposit that document to DAS.

  • If the priority document has been previously deposited to DAS by CIPO or another office, this step can be skipped.
  • At CIPO, uploading priority documents to DAS is not automatic, and can be accomplished by requesting that the document be uploaded using the DAS request form available on the CIPO Order IP documents webpage.
  • At CIPO, this service is free and we aim to complete these requests within three business days.
  • Once the priority document is uploaded to DAS by CIPO, the IB will provide a confirmation email containing your certificate of availability and a four-digit alphanumeric access code; this code will be required for the next step. For general information on WIPO DAS, see the DAS home page and the PCT Applicant's Guide, Annex B.

Step 2: Link your DAS document to the International application

This step of the process is associating the priority document stored on DAS to the international application, is accomplished as follows: (from ePCT User Guide)

  1. Open the international application in ePCT.
  2. Select the Actions tab.
  3. Select from the pull-down list, "Obtain priority document from DAS" and click OK.
    1. The system will give a warning if there are no priority claims in the application or if the time limit has expired.
  4. ePCT will then display priority claims contained within the international application and their status. For applications where the priority document can be downloaded from DAS, the DAS access code will be required to be entered. (This option if only available for applications where the document has been made available in DAS).
  5. Enter the DAS access code.
    1. ePCT will, in real time, check the status of the priority document and verify the access code.
  6. Sign the request by entering a text string signature in the signature box.
  7. Save as a draft if you'd like to submit later, or
  8. Press Submit
    1. This request to link documents will be processed immediately.
  9. Confirm that the priority documents are present by checking the contents of the international application under File View.

For support with ePCT, applicants should email WIPO ePCT Support.

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