In PCT applications filed with the United States as the receiving office, the USPTO will issue an Invitation Relating to Missing Parts (“USPTO Invitation”) if the application discloses enumerated sequences that would fall within the length requirements mandating the filing of a compliant sequence listing. The USPTO Invitation, issued pursuant to PCT 20.5(a) and PCT 20.5bis(a), enumerates the “missing parts.” Response to the USPTO Invitation is under PCT rule 20.5(c), which expressly states that the “[o]ffice shall correct the international filing date to the date on which the receiving office received that part.” By responding to the USPTO invitation, the application is viewed as “incomplete” at the time of filing and a new filing date will be assigned to the PCT application based on when the sequence listing is received. The application is considered “incomplete” because the sequence listing is a part of the description and PCT Article 11(1) requires “a part which on the face of it appears to be a description…” As such, adding the sequence listing after the international filing date indicates to USPTO that Article 11(1) was incomplete.
