The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), established in
1978, has now reached a landmark of 3 million published PCT
applications, as was recently announced by the Director General of
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This is a
tribute to the success of the PCT system and its wide-ranging use
by innovators to protect their innovations worldwide.
The PCT was established in 1978 with 18 founding members and has
evolved into an international treaty with 151 Member
States1. The PCT is in its essence a procedural treaty,
permitting the filing of a single application to thereby secure an
effective filing date in all PCT Member States.
The filing of a PCT Application provides a period of 30-months
from the earliest priority date of the PCT application2,
for filing national or regional3 applications. The
further prosecution of the patent applications towards patent grant
is then handled through separate and independent procedures before
each patent office4.
