Standards Description: It has been recognized that, with an increasing international exchange of published patent documents, there is a need to adopt some uniform procedures relating to the format and physical characteristics of patent documents, as well as to the layout and presentation of bibliographic data components. This need may be summarized as a desire amongst industrial property offices that issue patent documents to achieve the following, namely: to increase the informative value of patent documents, to facilitate the use of patent documents, to facilitate the use of modern techniques in the production, storage and distribution of such documents.