Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations in the United States

INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

Article 1
Establishment of a Union

(1) The States party to this Treaty (hereinafter called “the Contracting
States”) constitute a Union for cooperation in the filing, searching, and
examination, of applications for the protection of inventions, and for
rendering special technical services. The Union shall be known as the
International Patent Cooperation Union.

(2) No provision of this Treaty shall be interpreted as diminishing the
rights under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
of any national or resident of any country party to that Convention.

Article 2
Definitions

For the purposes of this Treaty and the Regulations and unless expressly
stated otherwise:

(i) “application” means an application for the protection of an invention;
references to an “application” shall be construed as references to
applications for patents for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility
certificates, utility models, patents or certificates of addition,
inventors’ certificates of addition, and utility certificates of addition;

(ii) references to a “patent” shall be construed as references to patents
for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility certificates, utility
models, patents or certificates of addition, inventors’ certificates of
addition, and utility certificates of addition;

(iii) “national patent” means a patent granted by a national authority;

(iv) “regional patent” means a patent granted by a national or an
intergovernmental authority having the power to grant patents effective in
more than one State;

(v) “regional application” means an application for a regional patent;

(vi) references to a “national application” shall be construed as
references to applications for national patents and regional patents, other
than applications filed under this Treaty;

(vii) “international application” means an application filed under this
Treaty;

(viii) references to an “application” shall be construed as references to
international applications and national applications;

(ix) references to a “patent” shall be construed as references to national
patents and regional patents;

(x) references to “national law” shall be construed as references to the
national law of a Contracting State or, where a regional application or a
regional patent is involved, to the treaty providing for the filing of
regional applications or the granting of regional patents;

(xi) “priority date,” for the purposes of computing time limits, means:

(a) where the international application contains a priority claim under
Article 8, the filing date of the application whose priority is so
claimed;
(b) where the international application contains several priority claims
under Article 8, the filing date of the earliest application whose
priority is so claimed;
(c) where the international application does not contain any priority
claim under Article 8, the international filing date of such
application;

(xii) “national Office” means the government authority of a Contracting
State entrusted with the granting of patents; references to a “national
Office” shall be construed as referring also to any intergovernmental
authority which several States have entrusted with the task of granting
regional patents, provided that at least one of those States is a
Contracting State, and provided that the said States have authorized that
authority to assume the obligations and exercise the powers which this
Treaty and the Regulations provide for in respect of national Offices.

(xiii) “designated Office” means the national Office of or acting for the
State designated by the applicant under Chapter I of this Treaty;

(xiv) “elected Office” means the national Office of or acting for the State
elected by the applicant under Chapter II of this Treaty;

(xv) “receiving Office” means the national Office or the intergovernmental
organization with which the international application has been filed;

(xvi) “Union” means the International Patent Cooperation Union;

(xvii) “Assembly” means the Assembly of the Union;

(xviii) “Organization” means the World Intellectual Property Organization;

(xix) “International Bureau” means the international bureau of the
Organization and, as long as it subsists, the United International Bureaux
for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI);

(xx) “Director General” means the Director General of the Organization and,
as long as BIRPl subsists, the Director of BIRPI.

CHAPTER I

INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION
AND
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH

Article 3
The International Application

(1) Applications for the protection of inventions in any of the Contracting
States may be filed as international applications under this Treaty.

(2) An international application shall contain, as specified in this Treaty
and the Regulations, a request, a description, one or more claims, one or
more drawings (where required), and an abstract.

(3) The abstract merely serves the purpose of technical information and
cannot be taken into account for any other purpose, particularly not for
the purpose of interpreting the scope of the protection sought.

(4) The international application shall:
(i) be in a prescribed language;
(ii) comply with the prescribed physical requirements;
(iii) comply with the prescribed requirement of unity of invention;
(iv) be subject to the payment of the prescribed fees.

Article 4
The Request

(1) The request shall contain:

(i) a petition to the effect that the international application be
processed according to this Treaty;

(ii) the designation of the Contracting State or States in which
protection for the invention is desired on the basis of the international
application (“designated States”); if for any designated State a regional
patent is available and the applicant wishes to obtain a regional patent
rather than a national patent, the request shall so indicate; if, under a
treaty concerning a regional patent, the applicant cannot limit his
application to certain of the States party to that treaty, designation of
one of those States and the indication of the wish to obtain the regional
patent shall be treated as designation of all the States party to that
treaty; if, under the national law of the designated State, the designation
of that State has the effect of an application for a regional patent, the
designation of the said State shall be treated as an indication of the wish
to obtain the regional patent;

(iii) the name of and other prescribed data concerning the applicant and
the agent (if any);

(iv) the title of the invention;

(v) the name of and other prescribed data concerning the inventor where
the national law of at least one of the designated States requires that
these indications be furnished at the time of filing a national
application. Otherwise, the said indications may be furnished either in the
request or in separate notices addressed to each designated Office whose
national law requires the furnishing of the said indications but allows
that they be furnished at a time later than that of the filing of a
national application.

(2) Every designation shall be subject to the payment of the prescribed fee
within the prescribed time limit.

(3) Unless the applicant asks for any of the other kinds of protection
referred to in Article 43, designation shall mean that the desired
protection consists of the grant of a patent by or for the designated
State. For the purposes of this paragraph, Article 2(ii) shall not apply.

(4) Failure to indicate in the request the name and other prescribed data
concerning the inventor shall have no consequence in any designated State
whose national law requires the furnishing of the said indications but
allows that they be furnished at a time later than that of the filing of a
national application. Failure to furnish the said indications in a separate
notice shall have no consequence in any designated State whose national law
does not require the furnishing of the said indications.