PCT patent applications are administered by WIPO. The prosecution of a PCT patent application is a six-step process. The first step occurs when the applicant files a patent application in its home country. Once the applicant files the patent application in its home country, there is one year to file an international application.

The filing of an international application is the second step in the PCT patent prosecution process.

The basic structure of a U.S. patent application is similar to the structure of a PCT patent application. The structure of a U.S. patent application specification includes twelve basic parts:

1. Title
2. Cross-references to related applications
3. A statement or statements regarding federally sponsored research or development
4. The names of the parties to a joint research agreement
5. References to a "Sequence Listing," a table or a computer program listing appendix
6. The background of the invention
7. A brief summary of the invention
8. A brief description of the several views of the drawing
9. A detailed description of the invention
10. At least one claim
11. An abstract of the disclosure
12. A sequence listing

Next time, we will conclude our discussion of PCT patent applications.