1893.01(a)(2) Article 19 Amendment (Filed With the International Bureau) [R-10.2019]

The claims of an international application may be amended under PCT Article 19 after issuance of the search report. The description and drawings may not be amended under PCT Article 19. The amendment is forwarded to the U.S. Designated Office by the International Bureau for inclusion in the U.S. national stage application. Article 19 amendments including a complete claim set in English will be entered by replacing the original English language claims of the international application with the amended claim set. If the Article 19 amendments were made in a language other than English, applicant must provide an English translation for the U.S. national stage application. The Article 19 amendment(s) and the English translation of the amendment(s) must be received by the Office by the date of commencement of the national stage (see MPEP § 1893.01). Otherwise, the amendment(s) will be considered to be canceled, 35 U.S.C. 371(d). If such canceled amendments are desired, they must be offered under 37 CFR 1.121 as a preliminary amendment or a responsive amendment under 37 CFR 1.111. In this regard, the “Transmittal Letter To The United States Designated/Elected Office (DO/EO/US) Concerning A Submission Under 35 U.S.C. 371” (Form PTO-1390) available at www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms includes a check box by which the applicant may expressly instruct the U.S. Designated/Elected Office not to enter the Article 19 amendment(s) in the United States national stage application.

Article 19 amendments filed before July 1, 2009 were not required to include a complete claim set and the pages of the translation would not have been entered as replacement claim sheets where entry would have resulted in an inconsistency in the flow of the claims from the bottom of one page to the top of the following page. In such situations, applicants are encouraged to submit a preliminary amendment in accordance with 37 CFR 1.121 to obtain entry of the desired changes.