On December 19, 2011, the USPTO announced that it entered into an agreement with the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Under the agreement, Rospatent will become an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) for PCT applications filed with the USPTO as the receiving office. The starting date for the agreement is January 10, 2012.

The addition of Rospatent as an ISA and IPEA will give US applicants more choices and potentially lower application costs. Applicants will have more flexibility in choosing an international searching and examining authority based on the:

The PCT is an international agreement that simplifies filing a patent application in its contracting states while deferring the large costs of international patent filing. A PCT application allows the filing of a single patent application in a PCT receiving office, which preserves the applicants right to later file national patent applications in any of the designated PCT states. International applicants receive an International Search Report and an International Preliminary Report on Patentability to help them determine if an application meets basic patentability criteria before committing to the high cost of translating and entering the national stage in one or more PCT countries.