Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganism

Done at Budapest on April 28, 1977, and amended on September 26, 1980
TABLE OF CONTENTS2

Introductory Provisions

Article 1: Establishment of a Union

Article 2: Definitions

CHAPTER I: Substantive Provisions

Article 3: Recognition and Effect of the Deposit of Microorganisms

Article 4: New Deposit

Article 5: Export and Import Restrictions

Article 6: Status of International Depositary Authority

Article 7: Acquisition of the Status of International Depositary Authority

Article 8: Termination and Limitation of the Status of International Depositary Authority

Article 9: Intergovernmental Industrial Property Organizations

CHAPTER II: Administrative Provisions

Article 10: Assembly

Article 11: International Bureau

Article 12: Regulations

CHAPTER III: Revision and Amendment

Article 13: Revision of the Treaty

Article 14: Amendment of Certain Provisions of the Treaty

CHAPTER IV: Final Provisions

Article 15: Becoming Party to the Treaty

Article 16: Entry Into Force of the Treaty

Article 17: Denunciation of the Treaty

Article 18: Signature and Languages of the Treaty

Article 19: Deposit of the Treaty; Transmittal of Copies; Registration of the Treaty

Article 20: Notifications
 
 

 

Introductory Provisions

 

Article 1
Establishment of a Union

 

The States party to this Treaty (hereinafter called “the Contracting States”) constitute a Union for the international recognition of the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure.

 

Article 2
Definitions

 

For the purposes of this Treaty and the Regulations:

(i) references to a “patent” shall be construed as references to patents for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility certificates, utility models, patents or certificates of addition, inventors’ certificates of addition, and utility certificates of addition;

(ii) “deposit of a microorganism” means, according to the context in which these words appear, the following acts effected in accordance with this Treaty and the Regulations; the transmittal of a microorganism to an international depositary authority, which receives and accepts it, or the storage of such a microorganism by the international depositary authority, or both the said transmittal and the said storage;

(iii) “patent procedure” means any administrative or judicial procedure relating to a patent application or a patent;

(iv) “publication for the purposes of patent procedure” means the official publication, or the official laying open for public inspection, of a patent application or a patent;

(v) “intergovernmental industrial property organization” means an organization that has filed a declaration under Article 9(1);

(vi) “industrial property office” means an authority of a Contracting State or an intergovernmental industrial property organization competent for the grant of patents;

(vii) “depositary institution” means an institution which provides for the receipt, acceptance and storage of microorganisms and the furnishing of samples thereof;

(viii) “international depositary authority” means a depositary institution which has acquired the status of international depositary authority as provided in Article 7;

(ix) “depositor” means the natural person or legal entity transmitting a microorganism to an international depositary authority, which receives and accepts it, and any successor in title of the said natural person or legal entity;

(x) “Union” means the Union referred to in Article 1;

(xi) “Assembly” means the Assembly referred to in Article 10;

(xii) “Organization” means the World Intellectual Property Organization;

(xiii) “International Bureau” means the International Bureau of the Organization and, as long as it subsists, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI);

(xiv) “Director General” means the Director General of the Organization;

(xv) “Regulations” means the Regulations referred to in Article 12.

 

CHAPTER I
Substantive Provisions

 

Article 3
Recognition and Effect of the Deposit
of Microorganisms

 

(1)

(a) Contracting States which allow or require the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure shall recognize, for such purposes, the deposit of a microorganism with any international depositary authority. Such recognition shall include the recognition of the fact and date of the deposit as indicated by the international depositary authority as well as the recognition of the fact that what is furnished as a sample is a sample of the deposited microorganism.