List of WIPO Standards, Recommendations and Guidelines

Part 3 of the Handbook on Intellectual Property Information and Documentation

Who are WIPO Standards for?

WIPO Standards are presented as recommendations and are directed to states and international organizations, in particular to their national or regional intellectual property offices, to the International Bureau of WIPO, and to any other national or international institution interested in intellectual property documentation.

All documents listed below are in PDF format.

Standard Title Latest Update

Standards of a general nature, common to information and documentation

ST.2 Manner for designating calendar dates May 1997
ST.3 Two-letter codes for the representation of states, other entities and organizations December 2025
ST.13 Numbering of applications for IPRs February 2008
ST.90

Recommendation for processing and communicating Intellectual Property data using Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) (Version 2.0) December 2025
Recommendation for processing and communicating Intellectual Property data using Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) (Version 1.1) February 2023
Related Resource: API Catalog for Intellectual Property
ST.91 Recommendations on digital three-dimensional (3D) models and 3D images October 2024
ST.92 Recommendations on the Data Package Format for the Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents November 2025
ST.96 Processing of Intellectual Property information using XML

Related Resource: ST.96 XML Examples

April 2026
ST.97 Recommendation for Processing of Intellectual Property Data Using JSON July 2026

Standards relating to patent information and documentation

ST.1 Minimum data elements required to uniquely identify a patent document May 2001
ST.6 Numbering of published patent documents December 2002
ST.8 IPC symbols on machine-readable records March 2011
ST.9 Bibliographic data on and relating to patents and SPCs October 2024
ST.10 Published patent documents November 1997
ST.10a Format of patent documents April 1994
ST.10b Layout of bibliographic data components December 2008
ST.10c Presentation of bibliographic data components August 2017
ST.10d Physical characteristics of patent documents October 2016
ST.11 Minimum of indexes to be inserted in patent gazettes December 1990
ST.12 Preparation of abstracts of patent documents April 1994
ST.12a Abstracts of patent documents April 1994
ST.12b Categorized patent abstract April 1994
ST.12c Physical characteristics of separately published abstracts April 1994
ST.14 References cited in patent documents May 2016
ST.15 Titles of inventions in patent documents December 1995
ST.16 Identification of different kinds of patent documents October 2016
ST.17 Coding of headings of announcements made in official gazettes December 1990
ST.18 Patent gazettes and other patent announcement journals November 1997
ST.19 Indexes issued by IPO December 1990
ST.20 Name indexes to patent documents December 1993
ST.21 Reduction of volume of priority documents April 1994
ST.22 Authoring of patent applications for the purpose of OCR December 2008
ST.25 Presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings December 2009
ST.26 Presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings using XML (version 2.0, enters into force on July 1, 2027) November 2025
Presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings using XML (Version 1.7) January 2024
Presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings using XML (Version 1.6) June 2023
Presentation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings using XML (Version 1.5) November 2021
Related Resource: WIPO Sequence software tool
ST.27 Exchange of Patent Legal Status Data

Related Resource: Mapping tables of national/regional patent legal status events to ST.27

October 2024
ST.31 Character sets for the exchange of patent documents October 1996
ST.32 Markup of patent documents using SGML November 1995
ST.33 Data exchange of facsimile information of patent documents February 1999
ST.34 Recording of application numbers in electronic form December 2008
ST.35 Data exchange of mixed-mode published patent information on MMMT December 1999
ST.36 Processing of patent information using XML November 2007
ST.37

Authority File of Published Patent Documents (Version 3.0) December 2025
Authority File of Published Patent Documents (Version 2.2) November 2021
Related Resource: Authority File Portal
ST.40 Facsimile images of patent documents available on CD-ROM April 1993
ST.50 Corrections, alterations and supplements relating to patent information December 2009

Standards relating to trademark information and documentation

ST.60 Bibliographic data relating to marks December 2025
ST.61

Recommendation for the exchange of trademark legal status data

Related Resource: Mapping tables of national/regional trademark legal status events to ST.61

October 2024
ST.62 Standard abbreviation for “Vienna Classification” December 1992
ST.63 Content and layout of trademark gazettes November 1997
ST.64 Search files for trademark search May 1996
ST.66 Processing of trademark information using XML March 2012
ST.67 Electronic management of the figurative elements of trademarks July 2012
ST.68 Electronic management of sound marks June 2016
ST.69 Electronic management of motion and multimedia marks December 2020

Standards relating to industrial design information and documentation

ST.80 Bibliographic data relating to industrial designs November 2024
ST.81 Content and layout of industrial designs gazettes November 1997
ST.86 Processing of industrial design information using XML February 2008
ST.87

Exchange of industrial design legal status data

Related Resource: Mapping tables of national/regional industrial design legal status events to ST.87

October 2024
ST.88 Electronic representation of industrial designs December 2023