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On October 31st, Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the USPTO, announced that IP Australia, the Australian national patent office, will function as an International Searching Authority (ISA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) for certain types of international patent applications for the USPTO as of November 1st. As noted within the announcement, an applicant may utilize IP Australia for applications filed in English but that do not have claims relating to ?mechanical engineering or analogous fields of technology as defined by certain International Patent Classification classes,? including those listed in Annex A to the USPTO-IP Australia Agreement included within the link below.

Here is a list of the current ISA?s for U.S.-filed PCT applications and their corresponding search fees (in U.S. dollars):

USPTO: $1,800
European Patent Office: $2,665
Korean Intellectual Property Office: $220
IP Australia: $1,514

USPTO Announcement: LINK

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