Patent Law Treaty

General Information

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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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