Treaty on International Cooperation in the Field of Patents

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Treaty on International
Cooperation in the Field of Patents
Short title: Patent cooperation agreement
Title (engl.): Patent Cooperation Treaty
Abbreviation: PCT
Date: June 19, 1970
Reference: BGBl. 1976 II p. 649, 664 (in three languages), last amended in BGBl. 2002 II p. 727, 728 (in three languages)
Contract type: Multinational
Legal matter: Intellectual Property
Signing:
Ratification : 152 member states (as of July 15, 2017)

Germany: January 24, 1978
Liechtenstein: March 19, 1980
Austria: April 23, 1979
Switzerland: January 24, 1978
Please note the note on the applicable contract version .

The Treaty on International Cooperation in the field of patents , shortly Patent Cooperation Treaty or PCT (after English. P atent C ooperation T reaty ), is an international treaty. Through this treaty, its contracting states form a special association in accordance with the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ( Paris Convention).

The PCT enables association members, i. H. natural or legal persons who are either nationals of a contracting state or have their seat in a contracting state by filing a single patent application with the International Office of WIPO or another approved office (e.g. German Patent Office or European Patent Office ) for all contracting states of the PCT to apply for a patent.

Contracting States and Non-Contracting States

As of April 14, 2017, 152 states are PCT contracting states, i. H. in relation to the 193 member states of the United Nations at the same time, this is approximately 79 percent of all states in the world. The last states to accede to the PCT are (in order of their accession):

  • Jordan (JO; entry into force on June 9, 2017)
  • Cambodia (KH; deposit of the certificate of accession on September 8, 2016)
  • Djibouti (DJ; deposit of the membership certificate on June 23, 2016)
  • Kuwait (KW; deposit of the instrument of accession on June 9, 2016)
  • Thailand (TH; deposit of the instrument of accession September 24, 2009, entry into force December 24, 2009),
  • Qatar (QA; ratified May 3, 2011, entry into force August 3, 2011),
  • Rwanda (RW; deposit of the instrument of accession May 31, 2011, entry into force August 31, 2011),
  • Brunei Darussalam (BN; deposit of the instrument of accession April 24, 2012, entry into force July 24, 2012),
  • Panama (PA; deposit of the instrument of accession June 7, 2012, entry into force September 7, 2012),
  • Saudi Arabia (SA; entry into force August 3, 2013) and
  • Iran (IR; effective October 4, 2013).

Nevertheless, some economically significant countries such as Argentina, Taiwan and Venezuela are not yet PCT contracting states. The following list contains 44 states that have not acceded to the PCT (as of October 13, 2017; each of the states listed is a UN member, unless explicitly stated otherwise):

  1. Afghanistan
  2. Andorra
  3. Argentina
  4. Ethiopia
  5. Bahamas
  6. Bangladesh
  7. Bhutan
  8. Bolivia
  9. Burundi
  10. Cook Islands (not a UN member, administered by New Zealand)
  11. Eritrea
  12. Fiji
  13. Guyana
  14. Haiti
  15. Iraq
  16. Jamaica
  17. Yemen
  18. Cape Verde
  19. Kiribati
  20. Congo, Democratic Republic (CD) (not to be confused with the Republic of the Congo (CG), which is a PCT member)
  21. Lebanon
  22. Maldives
  23. Marshall Islands
  24. Mauritius
  25. Micronesia
  26. Myanmar (also called: Burma or Burma)
  27. Nauru
  28. Nepal
  29. East Timor
  30. Pakistan
  31. Palau
  32. Paraguay
  33. Solomon Islands
  34. Samoa
  35. Somalia
  36. South Sudan
  37. Surinam
  38. Taiwan (also called: Republic of China; not a UN member)
  39. Tonga
  40. Tuvalu
  41. Uruguay
  42. Vanuatu
  43. Vatican City (not a UN member)
  44. Venezuela

Procedure

The procedure under the PCT comprises an international phase and a national (or regional) phase.

In the international phase, an international search (Art. 12 ff. PCT) is carried out according to the relevant state of the art and the patent application is published with the search report. An application for a preliminary examination can then be submitted, which will also be carried out in the international phase and in accordance with the provisions of the PCT.

The transition to the national (or regional) phase must then take place within a certain period of time (usually 30 months after filing the international application or after the date of any priority application that may have been claimed ). H. the applicant must be in the states for which he wants to pursue the patent nationally or at a regional office such as B. Submit a request for examination to the European Patent Office EPO or the African offices ARIPO , OAPI and the Eurasian EAPO , pay the necessary fees and, if necessary, submit a translation of the patent application into the official language. The further procedure for granting a patent, i.e. H. In particular, the final examination of patentability then runs in parallel before the national and regional offices.

Use

For the applicant, this procedure has the advantage that he only has to submit one application for the grant of a patent on the filing date, only has to submit the application documents (description, claims, drawings, abstract) in one language and only has to pay the fees for the international patent application. He can then wait for the search and possibly the preliminary examination to assess the prospect of success of the patent application. This gives him time to decide in which countries he wants to pursue the application. Only after 30 months (or 31 for individual patent offices, for example the European Patent Office) are the fees for all these countries and the translations that may have to be submitted due.

With the PCT procedure, however, it should be remembered that neither the international search nor the international preliminary examination is binding for the subsequent national (or regional) phase. Specifically, this means that z. For example, the US Patent and Trademark Office often denies patentability of a patent application despite a positive international test report. No patents are granted in the PCT process, it is just a central application process.

See also

literature

  • Dr. Matthias Brandi-Dohrn, Dr. Stephan Gruber, Ian Muir: European and International Patent Law . 5th edition, CH Beck, 2002, ISBN 3-406-49180-4 .
  • Lise Dybdahl: European patent law . 2nd edition, Carl Heymanns Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-452-25682-0 .
  • Dr. Ole Trinks: PCT in practice . 2nd edition, Heymann, 2009, ISBN 978-3-452-27211-9 .
  • Bozic / Düwel / Gabriel / Teufel: EPC and PCT tables , 1st edition, Carl Heymanns Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-452-27682-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/treaties/en/documents/pdf/pct.pdf
  2. ↑ The PCT now has 152 Contracting States. Retrieved April 14, 2017 (English).