WIPO - Patent Law Treaty Goes Into Effect

The Patent Law Treaty which was adopted by a diplomatic conference in Geneva on June 1, 2000 finally went into effect on April 28, 2005. The founding members were Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Krygzstan, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Since then Bahrain, Finland and the United Kingdom have also adhered to the treaty, although it only became effective for the latter two in March 2006.

The most significant features of the treaty are probably its requirements for member countries: (1) to keep to a minimum the documents required to secure a filing date (including a requirement that, initially, the description may be filed in any language), (2) to abolish any restrictions they may have on who can pay maintenance fees, (3) to provide for reinstatement of lost rights if lapse occurred despite due care of the owner and (4) to provide that, where a term for filing an application claiming Convention priority has been missed, applicants are given a period of at least two months after the expiration of the period within which priority should have been claimed to seek restoration of the right to priority on the ground that the failure to file the application in time "occurred in spite of due care required by the circumstances having been taken".