Revised June 6
The Israel PTO announced yesterday that applicants who file applications in Israel that claim priority from a provisional patent application may on that basis request expedited examination under section 19A(a) of the statute. The idea is that applicants who have filed a provisional application but wish to obtain an examination report before the end of the priority year may take advantage of this program in order to do so.
For reasons that will be explained shortly, I don’t understand the attraction of this program versus making one’s first filing a filing at the Israel PTO.
To give a little history, in 2010 then-Commissioner Meir Noam instituted a policy that an application that was filed first in Israel, and that was intended to serve as priority application, could be moved to the front of the examination queue. While at that time no fee was involved, it was necessary to submit an affidavit in support of the request. In 2012 the statute was amended an introduced section 19A; the implementing regulations added a fee for some such requests to jump to the front of the line. In 2019, then-Commissioner Ofir Alon instituted a policy whereby the Office waived the requirement for a declaration in such situations.
Yesterday’s announcement says that applications filed in Israel not as PCT national phase applications, but that claim priority from a provisional application, may also be moved to the front of the queue under the same statutory provisions. I understand the announcement to be saying that no affidavit will be required. However, unlike applications first filed in Israel under the 2010/2019 policy, for these applications, a two fees of 337 and 786 shekels respectively will be required. ThisThese isare in addition to the 2284 shekel filing fee. At the present exchange rate, that’s about $90 + $215 + $620 = $835925 to get an examination report.
So it’s not clear to me what the advantage is in filing a provisional application followed by an Israeli filing shortly thereafter, versus just making a first filing in Israel, and saving the extra $215 fee, or even filing in other another jurisdiction that doesn’t charge much. In the UK, for example, one can file and pay for only a search report.
Additionally, in many cases, an applicant that makes its first filing a provisional application does so because it has a limited budget and is trying to keep costs down. And if the Israel application contains additional material versus the provisional, and the applicant later wants the Israel application to serve as a second priority application, it will be necessary to pay a fee to make the application available electronically via DAS, whereas the USPTO doesn’t charge money to do this.
The announcement is also a bit strange in that it doesn’t specify US provisional applications – it says, in Hebrew, a “bakashat ara’I”, which translates as “temporary application”, then uses the English term “provisional application”. Presumably this is meant to refer to US provisional applications, but are applications from any other jurisdiction meant to be included?
One useful aspect of asking for an examination in Israel is that Israel has PPH agreements with several important jurisdictions, including the USA, Japan, China and the EPO. So getting a favorable examination report in Israel can be used to expedite examination in some other countries. But again, why first file a US provisional and then file in Israel, so that one can pay extra money?
America-Israel Patent Law Blog 
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