It is essential, for both applicants and designated Offices, that it is possible to prove exactly what was filed. Annex F of the PCT Administrative Instructions from the outset set out requirements for integrity and non‑repudiation, which were fulfilled by issuing a filing receipt including a hash of the package submitted by the PCT‑SAFE filing software. In the event of data loss by the receiving Office, the applicant would be able to prove that the package generated by PCT‑SAFE, of which a copy was kept locally, was identical to what was filed. With the move to browser‑based filing systems, the applicant no longer necessarily keeps a copy of the package filed, only of the individual files uploaded for inclusion within the package.
Although there has never yet been a need to use this particular safeguard, it would be desirable for the filing receipt to be updated to provide hashes of the individual files. This requirement is not directly related to the question of full text processing, but is closely associated with the questions of legal status of different versions of the application, availability of records and the ability to make corrections in the case of any conversion errors (see section C2, below).
The Task Force is requested to consider the implementation of improvements to submission receipts and any corresponding records to enable browser-based submission systems to return a receipt that meets the needs of non-repudiation for each file uploaded.