Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations 3

Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations

 

CHAPTER VII

REVISION AND AMENDMENT

Article 60
Revision of the Treaty

(1) This Treaty may be revised from time to time by a special conference of
the Contracting States.

(2) The convocation of any revision conference shall be decided by the
Assembly.

(3) Any intergovernmental organization appointed as International Searching
or Preliminary Examining Authority shall be admitted as observer to any
revision conference.

(4) Articles 53(5), (9) and (11), 54, 55(4) to (8), 56, and 57, may be
amended either by a revision conference or according to the provisions of
Article 61.

Article 61
Amendment of Certain Provisions of the Treaty

(1)(a) Proposals for the amendment of Articles 53(5), (9) and (11), 54,
55(4) to (8), 56, and 57, may be initiated by any State member of the
Assembly, by the Executive Committee, or by the Director General.

(b) Such proposals shall be communicated by the Director General to the
Contracting States at least six months in advance of their consideration by
the Assembly.

(2)(a) Amendments to the Articles referred to in paragraph (1) shall be
adopted by the Assembly.

(b) Adoption shall require three-fourths of the votes cast.

(3)(a) Any amendment to the Articles referred to in paragraph (1) shall
enter into force one month after written notifications of acceptance,
effected in accordance with their respective constitutional processes, have
been received by the Director General from three-fourths of the States
members of the Assembly at the time it adopted the amendment.

(b) Any amendment to the said Articles thus accepted shall bind all the
States which are members of the Assembly at the time the amendment enters
into force, provided that any amendment increasing the financial
obligations of the Contracting States shall bind only those States which
have notified their acceptance of such amendment.

(c) Any amendment accepted in accordance with the provisions of
subparagraph (a) shall bind all States which become members of the Assembly
after the date on which the amendment entered into force in accordance with
the provisions of subparagraph (a).

CHAPTER VIII

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 62
Becoming Party to the Treaty

(1) Any State member of the International Union for the Protection of
Industrial Property may become party to this Treaty by:

(i) signature followed by the deposit of an instrument of ratification,
or
(ii) deposit of an instrument of accession.

(2) Instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the
Director General.

(3) The provisions of Article 24 of the Stockholm Act of the Paris
Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property shall apply to this
Treaty.

(4) Paragraph (3) shall in no way be understood as implying the recognition
or tacit acceptance by a Contracting State of the factual situation
concerning a territory to which this Treaty is made applicable by another
Contracting State by virtue of the said paragraph.

Article 63
Entry into Force of the Treaty

(1)(a) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (3), this Treaty shall enter
into force three months after eight States have deposited their instruments
of ratification or accession, provided that at least four of those States
each fulfill any of the following conditions:

(i) the number of applications filed in the State has exceeded 40,000
according to the most recent annual statistics published by the
International Bureau,
(ii) the nationals or residents of the State have filed at least 1,000
applications ln one foreign country according to the most recent annual
statistics published by the International Bureau,
(iii) the national Office of the State has received at least 10,000
applications from nationals or residents of foreign countries according to
the most recent annual statistics published by the International Bureau.

(b) For the purposes of this paragraph, the term “applications”does not
include applications for utility models.

(2) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (3), any State which does not
become party to this Treaty upon entry into force under paragraph (1) shall
become bound by this Treaty three months after the date on which such State
has deposited its instrument of ratification or accession.

(3) The provisions of Chapter II and the corresponding provisions of the
Regulations annexed to this Treaty shall become applicable, however, only
on the date on which three States each of which fulfill at least one of the
three requirements specified in paragraph (1) have become party to this
Treaty without declaring, as provided in Article 64(1), that they do not
intend to be bound by the provisions of Chapter II. That date shall not,
however, be prior to that of the initial entry into force under paragraph
(1).

Article 64
Reservations

(1)(a) Any State may declare that it shall not be bound by the provisions
of Chapter II.

(b) States making a declaration under subparagraph (a) shall not be
bound by the provisions of Chapter II and the corresponding provisions of
the Regulations.

(2)(a) Any State not having made a declaration under paragraph (1)(a) may
declare that:

(i) it shall not be bound by the provisions of Article 39(1) with
respect to the furnishing of a copy of the international application and a
translation thereof (as prescribed),
(ii) the obligation to delay national processing, as provided for under
Article 40, shall not prevent publication, by or through its national
Office, of the international application or a translation thereof, it being
understood, however, that it is not exempted from the limitations provided
for in Articles 30 and 38.

(b) States making such a declaration shall be bound accordingly.

(3)(a) Any State may declare that, as far as it is concerned, international
publication of international applications is not required.

(b) Where, at the expiration of 18 months from the priority date, the
international application contains the designation only of such States as
have made declarations under subparagraph (a), the international
application shall not be published by virtue of Article 21(2).

(c) Where the provisions of subparagraph (b) apply, the international
application shall nevertheless be published by the International Bureau:

(i) at the request of the applicant, as provided in the Regulations,
(ii) when a national application or a patent based on the international
application is published by or on behalf of the national Office of any
designated State having made a declaration under subparagraph (a), promptly
after such publication but not before the expiration of 18 months from the
priority date.

(4)(a) Any State whose national law provides for prior art effect of its
Patents as from a date before publication, but does not equate for prior
art purposes the priority date claimed under the Paris Convention for the
Protection of Industrial Property to the actual filing date in that State,
may declare that the filing outside that State of an international
application designating that State is not equated to an actual filing in
that State for prior art purposes.

(b) Any State making a declaration under subparagraph (a) shall to that
extent not be bound by the provisions of Article 11(3).

(c) Any State making a declaration under subparagraph (a) shall, at the
same time, state in writing the date from which, and the conditions under
which, the prior art effect of any international application designating
that State becomes effective in that State. This statement may be modified
at any time by notification addressed to the Director General.

(5) Each State may declare that it does not consider itself bound by
Article 59. With regard to any dispute between any Contracting State having
made such a declaration and any other Contracting State, the provisions of
Article 59 shall not apply.

(6)(a) Any declaration made under this Article shall be made in writing. It
may be made at the time of signing this Treaty, at the time of depositing
the instrument of ratification or accession, or, except in the case
referred to in paragraph (5), at any later time by notification addressed
to the Director General. In the case of the said notification, the
declaration shall take effect six months after the day on which the
Director General has received the notification, and shall not affect
international applications filed prior to the expiration of the said
six-month period.

(b) Any declaration made under this Article may be withdrawn at any time
by notification addressed to the Director General. Such withdrawal shall
take effect three months after the day on which the Director General has
received the notification and, in the case of the withdrawal of a
declaration made under paragraph (3), shall not affect international
applications filed prior to the expiration of the said three-month period.

(7) No reservations to this Treaty other than the reservations under
paragraphs (1) to (5) are permitted.

Article 65
Gradual Application

(1) If the agreement with any International Searching or Preliminary
Examining Authority provides, transitionally, for limits on the number or
kind of international applications that such Authority undertakes to
process, the Assembly shall adopt the measures necessary for the gradual
application of this Treaty and the Regulations in respect of given
categories of international applications. This provision shall also apply
to requests for an international-type search under Article 15(5).

(2) The Assembly shall fix the dates from which, subject to the provision
of paragraph (1), international applications may be filed and demands for
international preliminary examination may be submitted. Such dates shall
not be later than six months after this Treaty has entered into force
according to the provisions of Article 63(1), or after Chapter II has
become applicable under Article 63(3), respectively.

 

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Patents, country.


Posted

in

, ,

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *