Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) on Thursday adopted by consensus an international treaty
that will simplify and streamline procedures for obtaining and
maintaining a patent.
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.
