PCT- The International Patent System
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PCT- The International Patent System
When a person invents something the protection of the same is also needed in respect of protecting it from any kind of unauthorised use or copy of the invention by some other person. Various companies, organisations, individuals, universities, research institutes etc seeks patent protection for their inventions. Patent Protections are jurisdiction specific as it gives protection of the patent in only the country it is filed in. But an International patent application helps the applicants in getting patent protection in various countries through one application only, based on the priority date of initial application in other countries as well. Majorly, there are two ways for seeking International patent protection, the Conventional Patent application and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
PCT stands for the Patent Cooperation Treaty; it came into existence in the year 1970. The PCT is the legal agreement in which various countries agree to enter. The main objective of the PCT is make the patent filing process more efficient and easier, also it is cheaper to file a single patent application in various different countries through filing one International Patent Application. The PCT application is generally filed at the National patent office of the country (the country must be the Contracting state under PCT) of which the applicant is a residence of, or if the applicant chooses, at the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva. The international application in all the designated states works in the same way as of a national application filed at the national patent office. Once the PCT application is filed it automatically designates all the contracting states bound by the treaty on the International filing date. It helps in assisting the applicants in getting the patent protection on International level for the invention they have made.
PCT Procedure:
PCT have some rules and regulations which need to be followed by the applicant when going for the International application. Some of the rules are mandatory to follow like the filing of the application, International publication, national phase etc. but some rules are supplementary and are optional in nature like, International preliminary examination.
Once the PCT application is filed by the applicant, it is examined by the regional patent office or directly by the International authority by the ISA (International Search Authority) and checked whether such application is patentable or not, further it is published in the International journals for the purpose to let the world get aware of such invention and any sort of opposition can be filed from all over the world. All the process of examination and publication are done by the International authority but all the granting of patents are done by the by the national or the regional patent offices, which is also known as “National Phase”.
The procedure of this whole process is as follows:
- Filing: any International application is filed under the national or regional patent office or WIPO. This filing of application has to be done within 12 months of filing the local application. The application filed must comply with all the required formalities and should be one language.
- International Search: the ISA checks the published patent document that is there any prior art existing resembling to such patent. Later, a written acknowledgement is being given on the patentability potential of the invention. This must be published within 16 months from the date of filing of the patent application at the local office.
- International Publication: after the expiration of 18 months from the earliest filing date as soon as possible, the International application enters the public domain. The publication should be done within 18 months from the date of initial filing.
- Supplementary International Search (Optional): on the request of the applicant the second ISA identifies the published documents which might not have discovered in the earlier search due to the diversity of the data of the prior arts in different languages and fields. The publication must be made within 22 months from the date of initial filling.
- International Preliminary Examination (Optional): on request of the applicant, one of the ISA carries out an additional patentability analysis on the amended application. This is an optional step and if done, then it should be published within 28 months from the initial date of the filing.
- National Phase: generally after almost 30 months from the date of initial filing of the application, on the ending of the PCT procedure, the applicant can claim the priority and can pursue the grant of the patent directly before the national patent office.
