Patent Law Treaty1

Article 1
Abbreviated Expressions

For the purposes of this Treaty, unless expressly stated otherwise:

(i) “Office” means the authority of a Contracting Party entrusted with the granting of patents or with other matters covered by this Treaty;

(ii) “application” means an application for the grant of a patent, as referred to in Article 3;

(iii) “patent” means a patent as referred to in Article 3;

(iv) references to a “person” shall be construed as including, in particular, a natural person and a legal entity;

(v) “communication” means any application, or any request, declaration, document, correspondence or other information relating to an application or patent, whether relating to a procedure under this Treaty or not, which is filed with the Office;

(vi) “records of the Office” means the collection of information maintained by the Office, relating to and including the applications filed with, and the patents granted by, that Office or another authority with effect for the Contracting Party concerned, irrespective of the medium in which such information is maintained;

(vii) “recordation” means any act of including information in the records of the Office;

(viii) “applicant” means the person whom the records of the Office show, pursuant to the applicable law, as the person who is applying for the patent, or as another person who is filing or prosecuting the application;

(ix) “owner” means the person whom the records of the Office show as the owner of the patent;

(x) “representative” means a representative under the applicable law;

(xi) “signature” means any means of self-identification;

(xii) “a language accepted by the Office” means any one language accepted by the Office for the relevant procedure before the Office;

(xiii) “translation” means a translation into a language or, where appropriate, a transliteration into an alphabet or character set, accepted by the Office;

(xiv) “procedure before the Office” means any procedure in proceedings before the Office with respect to an application or patent;

(xv) except where the context indicates otherwise, words in the singular include the plural, and vice versa, and masculine personal pronouns include the feminine;

(xvi) “Paris Convention” means the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed on March 20, 1883, as revised and amended;

(xvii) “Patent Cooperation Treaty” means the Patent Cooperation Treaty, signed on June 19, 1970, together with the Regulations and the Administrative Instructions under that Treaty, as revised, amended and modified;

(xviii) “Contracting Party” means any State or inter-governmental organization that is party to this Treaty;

(xix) “applicable law” means, where the Contracting Party is a State, the law of that State and, where the Contracting Party is an intergovernmental organization, the legal enactments under which that intergovernmental organization operates;

(xx) “instrument of ratification” shall be construed as including instruments of acceptance or approval;

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

(xxii) “International Bureau” means the International Bureau of the Organization;

(xxiii) “Director General” means the Director General of the Organization.

Article 2
General Principles

(1) [More Favorable Requirements] A Contracting Party shall be free to provide for requirements which, from the viewpoint of applicants and owners, are more favorable than the requirements referred to in this Treaty and the Regulations, other than Article 5.

(2) [No Regulation of Substantive Patent Law] Nothing in this Treaty or the Regulations is intended to be construed as prescribing anything that would limit the freedom of a Contracting Party to prescribe such requirements of the applicable substantive law relating to patents as it desires.

Article 3
Applications and Patents to Which the Treaty Applies

(1) [Applications]

(a) The provisions of this Treaty and the Regulations shall apply to national and regional applications for patents for invention and for invention and for patents of addition, which are filed with or for the Office of a Contracting Party, and which are:

(i) types of applications permitted to be filed as international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty;

(ii) divisional applications of the types of applications referred to in item (i), for patents for invention or for patents of addition, as referred to in Article 4G(1) or (2) of the Paris Convention.

(b) Subject to the provisions of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the provisions of this Treaty and the Regulations shall apply to international applications, for patents for invention and for patents of addition, under the Patent Cooperation Treaty: