The Historical Background of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

In the last century, before other international treaties to protect industrial property rights came into being, it was difficult to obtain the protection of industrial property rights from all countries in the world because of legal differences. In addition, the patent application must be produced in all countries at the same time, so as to avoid the disclosure in one country leading to the destruction of its novelty in other countries. These practical problems aroused a strong desire to overcome these difficulties. By the second half of last century, the trend of technological globalization and the growth of world trade required the harmonization and unification of industrial property law, especially in the field of patents and trademarks.

1873, when the Austro-Hungarian government invited other countries in the world to participate in an international exposition on inventions held in Vienna, inventors in many countries were reluctant to participate because of insufficient legal protection for the exhibits. This has promoted the development of the following two aspects: first, Austria has passed special laws to provide temporary protection for inventions, trademarks and industrial designs of all foreign exhibitors. Second, in the same year (1873), a conference on "patent reform" was held in Vienna. At the conference, many resolutions were adopted, and some effective and practical patent principles were put forward, urging governments of various countries to actively advocate patent system protection, so as to attract the world's attention to patents and thus "reach an international agreement on patent protection at an early date".

As a follow-up to the Vienna Conference, the International Conference on Industrial Property was held in Paris on 1878. The delegates decided to ask governments to hold a formal international (diplomatic) conference to solve the problem of "unified legislation" in the field of industrial property rights. After the meeting, France drafted a final proposal on the establishment of an "international alliance" for the protection of industrial property rights, which was distributed to all countries concerned by the French government, with an invitation letter to attend the 1880 Paris International Conference. At that meeting, a draft convention was adopted, which, on the whole, contains those substantive provisions that are still the main features of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

1883, a new diplomatic conference was held in Paris. Finally, Belgium, France, Brazil, El Salvador, Italy and other participating countries 1 1 adopted and signed the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (hereinafter referred to as the Paris Convention), which came into effect on July 7, 1984. Later, Britain, Tunisia, Ecuador and other countries joined, and reached 1985, and its member countries have reached 97 countries and regions. By 1997 65438+ 10/0, it has developed to 1 40, and most countries in the world, including China, have joined the alliance.

The Paris Convention has been revised many times since it was signed in 1883. Since the beginning of the 1900 Brussels Conference, every revision conference has ended with the adoption of amendments to the Paris Convention. All these earlier bills are still valid, except for the bills produced at the revision meetings in Brussels (1897 and 1900) and Washington, D.C. (11), but now most countries have adopted the newer draft, namely/kloc-.