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The Patent Cooperation Treaty (or PCT) provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions worldwide. A single filing results in a single search (and optionally a preliminary examination), after which the examination (if provided by national law) and grant procedures are handled by the relevant national or regional authorities.

1 History

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) was signed in Washington on June 19, 1970, and entered into force on January 21, 1978. The first international applications were filed on June 1, 1978. The Treaty was subsequently amended in 1979, and modified in 1984 and 2001.

2 Accession

Any Contracting State to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property can become a member of the PCT.

A majority of the world's countries are signatories to the PCT, including all of the major industrialised countries.

3 Procedure

One of the main advantages of the PCT procedure (or international procedure) is the possibility to delay as much as possible the national or regional procedures, and the respective fees and translation costs.

3.1 Filing

The first step of the procedure consists in filing an international (patent) application with a suitable patent office, called the Receiving Office. This application is usually called an international application since it does not result in an international patent (which does not exist).

3.2 Search

A search or international search is then made by an authorised International Searching Authority (ISA) to find out the most relevant prior art documents regarding the claimed subject-matter.

3.3 Publication

18 months after the filing date or the priority date if any, the international application is published by the International Bureau of WIPO, based at GenevaGeneva ( French: Geneve German: Genf Italian: Ginevra Spanish: Ginebra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zurich), located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac de Geneve or Lac Leman empties into the Rhone River. It is the capital of the Can, SwitzerlandThe Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in central Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international c.

3.4 Optional examination

Afterwards, a international preliminary examination may optionally be requested ("demanded"). The "international examination" is achieved by an authorized International Preliminary Examination Authority (IPEA). When an examination is demanded, the contracting states for which the examination is demanded are called Elected Offices (under Chapter II), otherwise they are called Designated Offices (under Chapter I).

3.5 National and regional phases

Finally, 30 or 31 months from the filing date of the patent application or from the priority date if any (except for a few countries), the international application enters in national or regional phase.

4 See also

• World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• European Patent OrganisationThe European Patent Organisation EPO or EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office which is the main organ of the organisation) is an international organisation set up by the European Patent Convention. The European Patent Organisati (EPO)
• Intellectual Property