Finding patents available for licensing internationally became much easier in January as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a new feature on its PatentScope website. Inventors who apply under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) may now fill out a “request for indication of availability for licensing purposes” form so that relevant information—such as whether licenses sought are exclusive or nonexclusive and the countries in which the invention is eligible for licensing—can be added to the search criteria within the site. The WIPO program is voluntary for now; however, the US Patent and Trademark Office is currently weighing making licensing availability mandatory for future patent applications. Vedder Price patent attorney Thomas Kowalski notes that not-for-profits and commercial ventures all look to license, partner and monitor, and from this perspective, the WIPO program is an opportunity to disseminate the availability of published patent-pending technology. It could be more useful, he says, if “the information could be published with the PCT publication of an application so the interested public, when viewing a PCT publication, could readily know if the technology is available, rather than need to check a particular website.” As of now, the data are accessed through links on the application's “bibliographic data” and “documents” pages.