The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announces the second foreign intellectual property office to join the Priority Document Exchange (PDX) program. As of July 28, 2007 the USPTO can now exchange priority documents electronically with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as well as the European Patent Office (EPO). The USPTO exchanges priority documents with the JPO and EPO through secure, electronic connections using the Trilateral Document Access (TDA) Web Services at no cost to the applicant.

The USPTO will also automatically request retrieval of a JPO priority document if an U.S. application claims priority in the Oath, Declaration, or Application Data Sheet, eliminating the need to submit a "Request To Retrieve" form SB-38. The USPTO already automatically attempts to electronically retrieve a copy of any EPO priority document to which priority is claimed in an U.S. application.

The USPTO and the EPO originally launched the PDX program on January 16, 2007 in order to offer applicants a faster, economical, and more secure transaction of priority documents.

(USPTO)