Since patent rights are territorial, only patent rights granted by a country can be legally protected in that country. In order to obtain patent protection in multiple countries, it is necessary to file patent applications in each country one by one. The formal and substantive provisions of patent laws in various countries are inconsistent, and the official languages ??used are also different. In order to obtain priority, the applicant needs to write application documents according to the requirements of each country within 12 months or 6 months, translate them into the required languages, submit the patent application to the agency of that country, and pay the fee.
In order to solve the above-mentioned difficulties encountered by patent applicants in submitting patent applications to multiple countries and regions, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) was signed in 1978 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization. ). The treaty unifies the procedures and procedures for patent applications, formal requirements for application documents, search and preliminary examination. Applications made under this treaty are called “international applications”.
my country joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1994. Chinese units or individuals can submit an application document written in Chinese to the State Intellectual Property Office, designate multiple countries or regions, determine the international filing date, and may be granted to different countries or regions in the future after certain procedures and examinations. patent rights.