16.1

Print this page

(a)  Each International Searching Authority may require that the applicant pay a fee (“search fee”) for its own benefit for carrying out the international search and for performing all other tasks entrusted to International Searching Authorities by the Treaty and these Regulations.

(b)  The search fee shall be collected by the receiving Office. The said fee shall be payable in the currency prescribed by that Office (“prescribed currency”).

(c)  Where the prescribed currency is the currency in which the International Searching Authority has fixed the said fee (“fixed currency”), the receiving Office shall promptly transfer the said fee to that Authority in that currency.

(d)  Where the prescribed currency is not the fixed currency and that currency:

(i)   is freely convertible into the fixed currency, the Director General shall establish, for each receiving Office which prescribes such a currency for the payment of the search fee, an equivalent amount of that fee in the prescribed currency according to directives given by the Assembly, and the amount in that currency shall promptly be transferred by the receiving Office to the International Searching Authority;

(ii)  is not freely convertible into the fixed currency, the receiving Office shall be responsible for the conversion of the search fee from the prescribed currency into the fixed currency and shall promptly transfer that fee in the fixed currency, in the amount fixed by the International Searching Authority, to the International Searching Authority.

(e)  Where, in respect of the payment of the search fee in a prescribed currency, other than the fixed currency, the amount actually received under paragraph (d)(i) of this Rule by the International Searching Authority in the prescribed currency is, when converted by it into the fixed currency, less than that fixed by it, the difference will be paid to the International Searching Authority by the International Bureau, whereas, if the amount actually received is more, the difference will belong to the International Bureau.

(f)   As to the time limit for payment of the search fee and the amount payable, the provisions of Rule 15.3 relating to the international filing fee shall apply mutatis mutandis.