Publication

In publications on industrial property information matters, the terms "publication" and "published" are normally used in the sense of making available the contents of a document to the public.

Depending on the particular national law, patent documents may be published on several levels of publication, as detailed in WIPO Standard ST.16.

The international application or any related documents are not published prior to the expiration of 18 months from the priority date, unless the applicant requests early publication of the international application, or the application is withdrawn.