The Patent Law Treaty, which was adopted by the member states of WIPO in 2000, is intended to harmonise and streamline, on a worldwide basis, formal patent procedures relating to national and regional patent applications and maintenance of patents.
The Treaty does not attempt to harmonise patent laws. Instead, the approach is more to the administrative side of the patent process.
At present, inventors seeking patent protection must follow certain rules. Some inventors lose their potential right to a patent because they make mistakes with these rules. The rules vary from country to country, which compounds the difficulty for the inventor. The treaty will simplify the rules and make them the same in all participating countries.
The Treaty has remained dormant since 2000, pending its ratification by 10 countries. The 10th country – Romania – ratified the Treaty on 28th January, with the result that the Treaty will come into force for all ratifying countries on 28th April.
The other countries that have ratified the Treaty are Moldova, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ukraine, the Republic of Estonia, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Republic of Croatia.