The Patent Law Treaty (PLT) is a treaty adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization signed on 1 June 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland, by 53 States and the European Patent Organisation (an intergovernmental organization). It entered into force on April 28, 2005. It aims at harmonizing and streamlining formal procedures such as the requirements to obtain a filing date for a patent application, the form and content of a patent application, and representation. The treaty "does not establish a uniform procedure for all parties to the PLT but leaves parties free to require fewer or more user-friendly requirements than those provided in the PLT." [1] As of February 2023, the PLT had 43 contracting states. [2]
![]() | The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with Canada, France, and the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(March 2022) |
Date | State |
---|---|
28 April 2005 | Republic of Moldova, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ukraine, Republic of Estonia, Kingdom of Denmark, Republic of Croatia, Romania |
15 December 2005 | Bahrain |
6 March 2006 | Finland |
22 March 2006 | United Kingdom (including the Isle of Man) |
19 July 2006 | Uzbekistan |
16 October 2007 | Oman |
27 December 2007 | Sweden |
12 March 2008 | Hungary |
1 July 2008 | Switzerland |
16 March 2009 | Australia |
12 August 2009 | Russia |
18 December 2009 | Liechtenstein |
5 January 2010 | France |
22 April 2010 | North Macedonia |
17 May 2010 | Albania |
12 June 2010 | Latvia |
20 August 2010 | Serbia |
27 December 2010 | Netherlands (the whole Kingdom, except Aruba) |
19 October 2011 | Kazakhstan |
3 February 2012 | Lithuania |
9 March 2012 | Montenegro |
9 May 2012 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
27 May 2012 | Ireland |
3 August 2013 | Saudi Arabia |
17 September 2013 | Armenia |
18 December 2013 | United States |
11 June 2016 | Japan |
21 October 2016 | Belarus |
4 January 2017 | Liberia |
22 August 2018 | North Korea |
25 June 2019 | Antigua and Barbuda |
30 October 2019 | Canada |
19 July 2021 | Turkmenistan |
Prior to the entry into force of the treaty in France, a bill was submitted on 14 January 2009 at the French Senate proposing the ratification of the PLT by France. [3] [4] In March 2009, a report from French Senator Rachel Mazuir recommended the ratification of the PLT, as soon as possible, by France. [5] [6] On 24 July 2009, the government was authorized to ratify the PLT. [7] The PLT then entered into force for France on 5 January 2010. [2]
The Treaty was transmitted from the President to the Senate in 2006. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued its Executive Report 110-6 in November 2007. Non-self-executing portions of the PLT were implemented as statute by the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012, Pub. Law 112-211 (Dec. 12, 2012). The PLT was ratified by the United States on 18 September 2013, and the ratification instrument was forwarded to WIPO. The Patent Office's implementing regulations were proposed at 78 Fed. Reg. 21788 (Apr. 11, 2013) and issued as a Final Rule at 78 Fed. Reg. 62367 (Oct. 21, 2013).
Article 20(7)(3) of the proposed new NAFTA, in December 2019, stated that "Each Party shall give due consideration to ratifying or acceding to the PLT, or, in the alternative, shall adopt or maintain procedural standards consistent with the objective of the PLT". [8]
The EPC 2000 or European Patent Convention 2000 is the version of the European Patent Convention (EPC) as revised by the Act Revising the Convention on the Grant of European Patents signed in Munich on November 29, 2000. On June 28, 2001, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation adopted the final new text of the EPC 2000. The EPC 2000 entered into force on December 13, 2007.
The London Agreement, formally the Agreement on the application of Article 65 of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents and sometimes referred to as the London Protocol, is a patent law agreement concluded in London on 17 October 2000 and aimed at reducing the translation costs of European patents granted under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The London Agreement is an agreement between some member states of the European Patent Organisation, and has not altered other language requirements applying to European patent applications prior to grant.
Emmerich de Vattel was a philosopher, diplomat, and jurist.
The droit d'auteur or French authors' rights law, is in the jurisdiction of France a set of exclusive prerogatives available to a creator over his or her intellectual work, as part of the intellectual property area of law. It has been very influential in the development of authors' rights laws in other civil law jurisdictions, and in the development of international authors' rights law such as the Berne Convention. It has its roots in the 16th century, before the legal concept of copyright was developed in the United Kingdom. Based on the "rights of the author" instead of on the right to copy, its philosophy and terminology are different from those used in copyright law in common law jurisdictions. The term droit d’auteur reveals that the interests of the author are at the center of the system, not that of the investor.
Benoît Battistelli is a French civil servant, former president of the European Patent Office (EPO) (2010-2018), and former head of the French National Industrial Property Institute (INPI).
Georges Jean Gabriel Vianès is a former French civil servant, corporate officer and politician. He was head of the French National Industrial Property Institute, the French national intellectual property office from 1975 to 1982. He was also the first Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, from 19 October 1977 to 18 October 1981.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal of agreeing on a set of legal principles for the protection of original work. They drafted and adopted a multi-party contract containing agreements for a uniform, border-crossing system that became known under the same name. Its rules have been updated many times since then. The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. In some jurisdictions these type of rights are referred to as copyright; on the European continent they are generally referred to as authors' rights or makerright.
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The Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks is a treaty adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Singapore on 28 March 2006. It entered into force on 16 March 2009, following the ratification or accession of ten countries, namely Singapore, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania, Denmark, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, United States, Moldova, and Australia. The treaty establishes common standards for procedural aspects of trademark registration and licensing.
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Under the European Patent Convention (EPC), a petition for review is a request to the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) to review a decision of a board of appeal. The procedure was introduced in Article 112a EPC when the EPC was revised in 2000, to form the so-called "EPC 2000". A petition for review can essentially only be based on a fundamental procedural defect. Its purpose is not to obtain a reconsideration of the application of substantive law, such as points relating to patentability. The petition is a restricted form of judicial review, limited to examining serious errors of procedure which might have been committed by the Legal or Technical Boards of Appeal, prejudicing the right to a fair hearing of one or more appellants. Before the entry into force of the EPC 2000 in December 2007, it was not possible for a party who did not have his requests granted in an appeal to challenge the final decision of the Legal or Technical Board of Appeal on any grounds.
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Events in the year 1851 in Belgium.
Charles-Léon Lyon-Caen was a French jurist.
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