PCT Search Offices Refresh Their Journal List, Question Supplementary Search and Weigh AI Tools

By Haedar

Photo: Pexels / Pixabay

The patent offices that carry out international searches under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) finished their annual meeting on 29 October 2026 with three outcomes that matter to anyone filing international applications. They approved a new list of scientific journals that searchers must have, signalled that one optional PCT service may be scrapped, and continued talks on using artificial intelligence in search work.

The 33rd session of the Meeting of International Authorities took place online on 28 and 29 October. It followed the 16th informal meeting of the PCT Quality Subgroup on 26 and 27 October. WIPO published a summary on 4 November.

A new minimum set of journals

Every International Searching Authority must have access to a defined body of material, the "PCT minimum documentation". Part of it is a list of non-patent literature, mainly scientific and technical periodicals. Prior art often sits in journal papers rather than earlier patents, especially in fields such as biotechnology, chemistry and computing.

The authorities approved a broad revision of that list, the first of its scale in many years. The review was led by the United States Patent and Trademark Office during 2026. Seven journals were added, chosen for their usefulness in patent searching, and titles that have stopped publishing or are seldom cited were taken off.

For applicants, a better journal list means the international search report is more likely to surface relevant academic publications early. That gives a clearer basis for deciding, around month 30, in which countries to enter the national phase and whether claims need narrowing.

Supplementary search may go

Supplementary international search lets an applicant ask a second authority to search the same application, typically to cover prior art in another language. The authorities said they supported a possible abolition of the service.

Their reasoning is that the gaps it was meant to fill have shrunk. Search tools are stronger, more patent databases are reachable, and machine translation now lets examiners read documents from other jurisdictions far more easily. WIPO's International Bureau will now ask PCT contracting states, users and designated offices for their views, which will feed into a review by the PCT Assembly. Nothing changes yet.

AI, with examiners in charge

The Quality Subgroup discussed how AI might be used responsibly in search and examination while keeping human oversight and examiner judgement at the centre. It also looked at turning older patent documentation into digital, searchable formats with AI assistance, and at using data about the features of search reports to manage quality.

The subgroup also recommended releasing an interactive public tool showing where authorities apply the PCT search and examination guidelines differently. That could help applicants anticipate how a particular office tends to handle issues such as unity of invention.

The view from Indonesia

DJKI is a PCT receiving office but does not act as an International Searching Authority, so Indonesian applicants who file through the PCT have their search done by a foreign office. Changes to the journal list therefore reach them directly through the search report they receive. Universities and research institutes, whose inventions often sit close to published academic work, have the most to gain from broader literature coverage. They should also note that any decision to remove supplementary search would leave the main search as the single international search, which makes choosing the searching authority more important.

Sources

• WIPO: PCT International Authorities Advance Modernization of Patent Search and Examination (4 Nov 2026)