PCT AI Section 311 — Renumbering in the Case of Deletion, Substitution or Addition of Sheets of the International Application and of the Translation Thereof

Ninth Edition, Revision 01.2024

• (a) The receiving Office shall, subject to Section 207 , sequentially renumber the sheets of the international application when necessitated by the addition of any new sheet, the deletion of entire sheets, a change in the order of the sheets or any other reason.
• (b) The sheets of the international application shall be provisionally renumbered in the following manner:
  • (i) subject to paragraph (iii), when a sheet is deleted, the receiving Office shall either include a blank sheet with the same number and with the word “DELETED,” or its equivalent in the language of publication of the international application, below the number, or insert, in brackets, below the number of the following sheet, the number of the deleted sheet with the word “DELETED” or its equivalent in the language of publication of the international application;
  • (ii) when one or more sheets are added, each sheet shall be identified by the number of the preceding sheet followed by a slant and then by another Arabic numeral such that the additional sheets are numbered consecutively, starting always with number one for the first sheet added after an unchanged sheet (e.g., 10/1, 15/1, 15/2, 15/3, etc.); when later additions of sheets to an existing series of added sheets are necessary, an extra numeral shall be used for identifying the further additions (e.g., 15/1, 15/1/1, 15/1/2, 15/2, etc.).
  • (iii) where a correct element or part furnished under Rule 20.5bis to correct an erroneously filed element or part is added to the international application, the sheets of the correct element or part shall be numbered without taking into account the sheets of the erroneously filed element or part, and no action referred to in paragraph (i) need be taken with respect to the sheets of the erroneously filed element or part, either when they are removed from the international application under Section 309(c)(iv) or 310(b)(iv) , or when they are moved to the end of the corresponding element of the international application under Section 309(b)(iv) .
• (c) In the cases mentioned in paragraph (b), it is recommended that the receiving Office should write, below the number of the last sheet, the total number of the sheets of the international application followed by the words "TOTAL OF SHEETS" or their equivalent in the language of publication of the international application. It is further recommended that, at the bottom of any last sheet added, the words "LAST ADDED SHEET" or their equivalent in the language of publication of the international application should be inserted.
• (d) Paragraphs (a) to (c) shall apply mutatis mutandis to any translation of the international application furnished under Rule 12.3 or 12.4 .