The Patent Law Treaty – August 2000
In brief: We take a look at the Patent Law Treaty, which was ratified on 2 June 2000 in Geneva.
The Patent Law Treaty (PLT) was ratified on 2 June 2000 following a meeting of member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva. The Treaty seeks to harmonise, on a worldwide basis, formal patent procedures relating to national (overseas) and regional patent applications and maintenance of patents.
Under the present system, inventors seeking patent protection must, as a first step meet certain formality requirements in order to avoid rejection and a consequent loss of rights. Those formalities currently vary from one country to another. In standardising them, the PLT offers inventors and national and regional patent offices a number of advantages, for example:
- use of standardised forms and simplified procedures for obtaining and maintaining a patent that reduce the risk of error,
- cost reductions for patent protection,
- enhanced legal certainty for applicants filing in their home country and abroad, and
- procedures are more user friendly and widely accessible.
The provisions of the PLT apply to national and regional patent applications and patents, as well as to international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) once they have entered the national phase.
In countries such as Australia which are party to both the Paris Convention and the PCT, the implementation of the PLT is unlikely to change formal requirements of national patent applications. The PLT is likely to simplify procedures in certain countries such as South America or Africa bringing them into line with the procedures in other countries.
