Patent Cooperation Treaty

Juan Lapenne, Washington College of Law, AU

Abstract

In this article I describe and explain the different steps to file an international patent application pursuant PCT. In this description I also explain why and how the PCT has gone beyond the Paris Convention System establishing an international patent system prosecution that did not exist before.

Some interesting statistics are provided to show the development and success of this treaty over the years. Some reflections and questions are raised regarding these statistics, such as which are the countries that benefit the most from this treaty?, why are countries that have no patent activity –developing countries and at least developing countries- members to the PCT?

In this article the reader can also find how the PCT can be combined with other important patent treaties in order to get the maximum available benefits.

Finally, a comparison with its trademark brother treaty, the Madrid Protocol, is made. The main differences and similarities between these two treaties are established in this comparison.