The USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), are jointly developing document-type definitions (DTDs) for use with the electronic filing of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications. When finalized in 2001 December, these DTDs will enable applicants to create extensible-markup language (XML) international patent applications that can be processed by machine. In 2001 April, the USPTO, EPO, and JPO agreed that they will accept national applications filed electronically using the same international patent application formats. This will enable applicants to create an application once and submit it to EPO, JPO, USPTO, and PCT (WIPO) with only minor modifications. The USPTO plans to accept national electronic applications using the PCT DTDs through its electronic filing system (EFS) starting in 2002 October. The USPTO plans to publish patent applications and grants using new publishing DTDs based on the PCT filing DTDs starting 2003 January. The current draft of the PCT DTDs can be found at http://pcteasy.wipo.int/efiling_standards/schemaDocs/schemaDocs.htm with further information about their use at http://pcteasy.wipo.int/efiling_standards/EFPage.htm.