Patent Law Treaty

General Detail

General Information

  1. Type: Convention
  2. Date of signature:
  3. Place of signature: Geneva, Switzerland
  4. Depositary:
  5. Date of entry into force: 28/04/2005

Category

Intellectual property

Sub category

Patents

Groups

WIPO

What is it about?

The Patent Law Treaty aims to harmonize, simplify and rationalize administrative procedures governing patent acquisition and maintenance among national and regional intellectual property offices. The Treaty is applicable to national and regional patent requests made with the filing office of a contracting party. It applies equally to patent requests made during the national phase of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (Washington, 19 June 1970). The provisions of the Patent Law Treaty address six major points: - The simplification of filing date determinations; - The use of standardized forms for registering and maintaining a patent; - The possibility for holders of a patent to undertake administrative formalities without the necessity of an intermediary; - The simplification of procedures related to the transfer of ownership of a patent; - A reduction in the possibility for loss of patent rights due to unintentional non-observation of certain conditions related to a filing; - The encouragement of electronic filing of a patent without excluding the filings carried out in a written format.

Why is it relevant?

The implementation of simplified and uniform procedures permits the reduction of costs connected to patent filing and minimizes the risks of error that may occur during registration.

Additional Information

The Patent Law Treaty creates an Assembly representing the State parties. The International Bureau of WIPO is responsible for the administrative tasks. All State parties to the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris, 20 March 1883) or members of WIPO may become a party to this Convention. Under certain conditions intergovernmental organisations may also adhere.

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Country ratifications
CountryRatification date
Albania17/02/2010
Armenia17/06/2013
Australia16/12/2008
Bahrain15/09/2005
Bosnia and Herzegovina09/02/2012
Croatia20/12/2004
Denmark16/03/2004
Estonia14/04/2003
Finland06/12/2005
France05/10/2009
Hungary12/12/2007
Ireland27/02/2012
Japan11/03/2016
Kazakhstan19/07/2011
Kyrgyzstan24/04/2002
Latvia12/03/2010
Liechtenstein18/09/2009
Lithuania03/11/2011
Macedonia (The former Yugoslav Republic of)22/01/2010
Moldova27/09/2001
Montenegro09/12/2011
Netherlands27/09/2010
Nigeria19/12/2002
Oman16/07/2007
Romania28/01/2005
Russian Federation12/05/2009
Saudi Arabia03/05/2013
Serbia20/05/2010
Slovakia16/07/2002
Slovenia08/05/2002
Spain06/08/2013
Sweden27/09/2007
Switzerland31/03/2008
Ukraine31/03/2003
United Kingdom22/12/2005
United States of America18/09/2013
Uzbekistan19/04/2006
Treaties analysis
YearRatifications
20011
20024
20032
20043
20054
20061
20073
20082
20093
20105
20113
20122
20134
20161
Total38
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