Understanding The History Of "Patent Harmonization": Part 1

Not only the patent systems, but also the intellectual property systems, and more specifically, the legal systems, differ from country to country. This is natural from the viewpoint of "territorial sovereignty" and "territorial principle". Therefore, according to the "territorial principle", if an inventor wants to obtain a patent in a foreign country, it is necessary to carry out the procedure for obtaining a patent in the patent office of that country in accordance with the law of that country.

On the other hand, intellectual property, especially inventions protected by patents, are universal in terms of the basic concept of "new technical ideas." Therefore, the issue of international protection of inventions is how to properly protect such inventions with global qualities under the local idea of "territorial principle".