Patent Law Treaty is finalised

The Patent Law Treaty, which opens for signature on June 2, 2000, will enter into force once it has been ratified by ten countries.

The Treaty is the culmination of 5 years of negotiations and is described by WIPO as “a major step towards further harmonisation of patent law [which] promises to reduce the cost of patent protection and to make the process more user friendly and widely accessible.”

"Successful completion of the Treaty is a major step in the broader process of reducing patent costs around the world, said WIPO Director General Dr. Kamil Idris. "The next step is to work towards harmonisation of legal substance, and eventually towards a single global standard of protection," he added.

The Director General pointed out that ultimately the biggest savings in patent-related costs will come about when intellectual property offices around the world are able to share results of search and examination procedures.

Once it enters into force, the Treaty will harmonise and streamline, on a world-wide basis, formal patent procedures relating to national and regional patent applications and maintenance of patents. Inventors seeking patent protection must as a first step meet certain formality requirements in order to avoid rejection of their application and a consequent loss of rights. These formalities currently vary from one country to another. In standardising them, WIPO says the Treaty offers both inventors and national and regional patent offices a number of advantages:

• use of standardised forms and simplified procedures that reduce the risk of error;
• cost reductions for inventors, applicants and patent lawyers;
• elimination of cumbersome and complicated procedures;
• improved efficiency of patent offices and lower operating costs;
• possibility to introduce electronic filing of patent applications and related communications;
• reliance on a predictable maximum set of patent formalities in all countries party to the Treaty, resulting in easier access to foreign patent systems;
• Exceptions from mandatory representation;
• Enhanced legal certainty for applicants filing in their home country and abroad;
• Relief and re-instatement of rights in case of missing certain time limits; and
• Possibility to obtain a filing date, even if the main part of the application (description) is filed in a foreign language.