Whether your Office is using Hague Web Services (HWS) or EDI SFTP to interface with the Hague System, the electronic payload is the exactly same. This makes it quite easy for EDI users to migrate to HWS. The only difference is that HWS allow no more than one record per payload, whereas EDI allows multiple records in a single payload. As a consequence, EDI Offices that already send single record payloads can, from this perspective, migrate to HWS right away.
Office to IB communications are of the following sort:
Payloads consist in a ZIP file containing 3 kinds of information:
The complete documentation of the ST.96 can be found here.
The internal structure of the ZIP is unimportant. What matters is that:
Although the official ST.96 version in force in the Hague System is 7.0, the latter accepts the following ST.96 versions in Hague electronic payloads, for backward compatibility reasons:
The ST.96 tag to use for the various transactions that can be conveyed from your Office to the IB is as follows:
| Transaction type | ST.96 main tag |
|---|---|
| indirect application | <dgn:HagueApplication> |
| grant of protection | <dgn:HagueGrantProtectionRequest> |
| refusal | <dgn:HagueRefusalRequest> |
withdrawal of refusal | <dgn:HagueRefusalWithdrawalRequest> |
declaration that a change of ownership has no effect | <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunication> |
withdrawal of a declaration that a change of ownership has no effect | <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunication> |
division | <dgn:HagueDivision> |
refusal of correction | <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunication> |
invalidation | <dgn:HagueInvalidationRequest> |
invitation to pay the second part of the fee | <dgn:HagueSecondPartFeePayable> |
notification that the second part of the fee was paid | <dgn:HagueSecondPartFeePaid> |
cancellation for non payment of the second part of the fee | <dgn:HagueCancellationNonPaymentRequest> |
Complete ST.96 documentation can be found here.
Note that every transaction in the table above can also be sent as a <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunication>. In that case, the <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunicationCategory> sub-tag carries the transaction type, as follows (and as described here):
| Transaction type | <dgn:HagueGenericOfficeCommunicationCategory> value |
|---|---|
| indirect application | Application |
| grant of protection | Grant protection |
| refusal | Refusal |
withdrawal of refusal | Refusal withdrawal |
declaration that a change of ownership has no effect | Refusal owner change |
withdrawal of a declaration that a change of ownership has no effect | Refusal withdrawal owner change |
division | Division |
refusal of correction | Refusal correction |
withdrawal of refusal of correction | Refusal correction withdrawal |
invalidation | Invalidation |
invitation to pay the second part of the fee | Second part fee payable |
notification that the second part of the fee was paid | Second part fee paid |
cancellation for non payment of the second part of the fee | Cancellation non payment |
other | Other |
Indirect applications. through the <dgn:HagueApplication> tag (see "Samples" below), replicate the latest version of the DM/1. That includes section "Payment of fees", page 12 of the DM/1 (which can be found at https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/hague/en/docs/form_dm_1-editable1.pdf):
There are 4 payment methods at the moment (numbered according to the DM/1):
2. Instructions to debit from a Current Account at WIPO
3. Payment received and acknowledged by WIPO
4. Bank transfer
5. Payment made to the Office
Below are described the ways to express these different payment methods in ST.96 v4.0 and higher (when not specified). Payments methods are available at:
<com:Payment>
<com:PaymentModeCategory>Current account</com:PaymentModeCategory>
<com:PaymentMethod>
<com:CurrentAccount>
<!-- Account Number -->
<com:AccountNumber>123456</com:AccountNumber>
<!-- Holder of the account -->
<com:AccountHolderName>
<com:PersonName>
<com:PersonFullName>Someone who has a current account</com:PersonFullName>
</com:PersonName>
</com:AccountHolderName>
</com:CurrentAccount>
</com:PaymentMethod>
<!-- Identity of the party giving the instruction -->
<com:PayerName>
<com:EntityName>Jane Doe</com:EntityName>
</com:PayerName>
<com:FeePayableTotalAmount>12345.00</com:FeePayableTotalAmount>
</com:Payment> |
<com:Payment>
<!-- WIPO Receipt Number -->
<com:PaymentIdentifier>HAG/PayRef12345</com:PaymentIdentifier>
<com:PaymentModeCategory>Payment already made</com:PaymentModeCategory> <!-- Proposed for Version 7.0 of ST96 -->
<!-- Identity of the party which made the payment -->
<com:PayerName>
<com:EntityName>Jane Doe</com:EntityName>
</com:PayerName>
<com:FeePayableTotalAmount>12345.00</com:FeePayableTotalAmount>
</com:Payment> |
<com:Payment>
<com:PaymentModeCategory>Bank draft</com:PaymentModeCategory>
<com:PaymentMethod>
<com:BankTransfer>
<!-- Payment Identification: -->
<com:BankTransferIdentifier>Payment Ref 2</com:BankTransferIdentifier>
<!-- day/month/year: -->
<com:BankTransferDate>2022-12-25</com:BankTransferDate>
<com:DestinationBankAccount>WIPO bank account no</com:DestinationBankAccount> <!-- or WIPO Postal account -->
</com:BankTransfer>
</com:PaymentMethod>
<!-- Identity of the party which made the payment -->
<com:PayerName>
<com:EntityName>Jane Doe</com:EntityName>
</com:PayerName>
<com:FeePayableTotalAmount>12345.00</com:FeePayableTotalAmount>
</com:Payment> |
<com:PaymentBag> <com:Payment> <com:PaymentIdentifier>xxxxxxxxx</com:PaymentIdentifier> <com:PaymentMethod> <com:OtherPaymentMethod>Payment made to the office of indirect filing</com:OtherPaymentMethod> </com:PaymentMethod> <com:PaymentDate>2021-09-30</com:PaymentDate> <com:FeePayableTotalAmount com:currencyCode="CHF">1981</com:FeePayableTotalAmount> </com:Payment> </com:PaymentBag> |
<!-- In this case, the identity of the Office is given in the context. It is assumed to be the Office that is sending the dgn:HagueApplication -->
<com:Payment>
<!-- A reference that must also appear on a transfer statement from the Office. This common reference is that will allow the IB to match the payment with the application -->
<!-- This reference is given by the Office. It is not provided by the applicant -->
<com:PaymentReference>OfficeRef12345</com:PaymentReference>
<com:PaymentModeCategory>Payment through Office</com:PaymentModeCategory> <!-- Proposed for Version 7.0 of ST96 -->
<com:FeePayableTotalAmount>12345.00</com:FeePayableTotalAmount>
</com:Payment> |
The below examples are all ST.96 4.0 compliant.