ST.26 - A Brief History
In my last post, we talked about what ST.26 is. Now let’s take a closer look at the timeline since its proposal leading up to its implementation on January 1, 2022.
It all began in October 2010 when the Sequence Listing Task Force was created to “Prepare a recommendation on the presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for adoption as a WIPO standard. The proposal of the new WIPO standard should be presented along with a report on the impact of the said standard on the current WIPO Standard ST.25, including the proposed necessary changes to the Standard ST.25.”
The EPO was designated the Task Force Leader for the standard and after several years of discussion, the standard entitled WIPO ST.26 was formally adopted in March 2016.
Once the standard was adopted, conversations shifted to the transition options, as well as the requirements of an authoring/validation tool.
In May/June of 2017 at the fifth session of the CWS, the Task Force decided that the transition would proceed under the “big bang” scenario in which all Intellectual Property Offices (IPOs) would transition at the same time and that the date of transition would be January 2022.
Also at the fifth session, the International Bureau informed the CWS that it would develop a common authoring and validation software. As it was envisioned, the software tool would be used by both applicants and IPOs to prepare and validate Sequence Listings.
At the sixth and seventh sessions held in October 2018 and July 2019, additional revisions were made to the standard to address free text qualifiers and the option for the inclusion of language dependent free text within the XML Sequence Listing. The seventh session also discussed the status of the Sequence tool. The session also accepted a revised WIPO Standard which was published as version 1.3.
After the seventh session, conversations and meetings were moved online to discuss the language dependent free text and feature location formats to align with various databases including UniProt. The International Bureau also requested that IPOs provide their implementation plans, to which 22 offices responded and 4 had already provided.
In July 2020 the Task Force met online to discuss the modifications to the main body and Annex C of the Administration instructions which will be necessary to permit the filing and processing of international applications with WIPO ST.26-compliant sequence listings from January 1, 2022.
The PCT Working Group in October 2020 discussed the proposals to amend the PCT Regulations with their view to submit the amendments to the PCT assembly for consideration at its next session in the first half of 2021. The International Bureau will also work and consult with the IPOs to ensure legal provisions are in place to enter ST.26 into force on January 1, 2022.