Intellectual Property Logium provides services for International Patent Registration through WIPO. The International Patent registration system at WIPO is called PCT – The International Patent System.
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international treaty. PCT has 151 countries as the member States. Through PCT it is possible to apply for the protection of an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single international patent application. The grant of the Patent remains the right of the country for which the patent has been applied.
Any inventor may file an international application in the following three manners:
- File an international application with a national office
- File PCT through regional patent Office
- File PCT through WIPO
He only has to comply with the PCT formality requirements. The application is made in one language and by payment of one set of fees.
If the applicant is a national or resident of a country which is party to the ARIPO Harare Protocol, the OAPI Bangui Agreement, the Eurasian Patent Convention or the European Patent Convention he may alternatively file his international patent application with the regional patent Office concerned.
Any national or resident of PCT Contracting State and who has made an invention is entitled to file an international patent. If there are several applicants named in the international application, only one of them needs to comply with this requirement.
The International Patent Search from the database of world’s major patent offices is conducted and International Searching Authority (ISA) identifies the published patent documents and technical literature or the Prior Art which may have an influence on whether the applied invention is patentable.
The role of WIPO in the PCT is to:
- Receive application documents
- Perform a formality examination
- Publish the international application on WIPO’s online database PATENTSCOPE
- Publish data about the PCT application as prescribed in the Treaty and Regulations
- Translate various portions of the PCT application
- Communicate documents to Offices
Following are the advantages of the Patent Cooperation Treaty:
- You have up to 30 months or 18 more months after your provisional patent application. You can use this time for making better your work or making better arrangements for your patent application.
- During National Phase PCT cannot be rejected on formal grounds.
- The international search report and written opinion
- You can amend the application during the optional international preliminary examination and can make the application in order before processing by the various national patent Offices;
- National Phase becomes easier
- International publication online
- You can abandon your application, without going into the National Phase, if you find during its international phase that it is not patentable.
