A protest may be filed by an applicant if he does not agree with the request to pay an additional fee following a decision on lack of unity of invention taken during the international phase of the PCT (either during the international search performed by the International Search Authority (ISA) or the international preliminary examination performed by the IPEA).

Protest board

The competence for examining a protest lies exclusively with the review body, the Protest board, in accordance with Rule 40.2(c) to (e) or Rule 68.3(c) to (e) PCT, subject to payment of a protest fee.

The Protest board is responsible for deciding on protests against the payment of an additional fee for international search or international preliminary examination.

The Protest Board of the Nordic Patent Institute as an International Authority is a decentralised board consists of technical examiners from the Danish and Norwegian office and is headed by a protest manager.