On The Reform And Development Of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

Patent Cooperation Treaty is an important part of the protection system of the world intellectual property,which is set up on the basis of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.The aim of the treaty is to make a contribution to the process of science and technolog,to perfect the legal protection of inventions and to enhance the cooperation at the protection of patent among the whole world.It is about 40 years since the PCT was set up in the year of 1970 and then became effective in 1978. During these years,the PCT was amended three times in the year of 1979, 1984 and 2001 and the Regulation annexed to this Treaty was also amended many times.This Paper states the amendments of the Treaty and its Regulation by four chapters to expound my point of view that the development tendency of the PCT is to meet applicants' requirement so that the applicants are ready to use the Treaty as a approach to apply an international application and to ultimately establish a general platform for international applications.In the first Chapter One,the history of the PCT and its Regulation is introduced.By contrasted with the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property,the advantages of the PCT are obvious.The Treaty makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in many countries by filing one international patent application in one kind of language to one patent office of a State.It provides the applicants and States with more benefits than the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property does.Following the growth and success of the international application in the world,the units of the PCT system are faced with some problem of working overloading.It is necessary to improve this system by amending the Treaty and its Regulation to settle said problem and adapt to the social changes.The Chapter Two analyzes the objectives,the main contents and the significance of the amendment of PCT and its Regulation in these years in chronological order and the order of two categories of the PCT-formality examination and substantive examination.The amendments are shown as follows:Simplifying the kind of the languages accepted by the Receipt Office(RO);Accepting the right of priority from WIPO States;Admitting and publishing the declaration in the PCT application;Modification of the time limit for entering the national phase from 20 to 30 months from the priority date;All-inclusive designation system and Exceptions to said; International application and publication in electronic form;Cutting down the fees in international phase;Adding and Restoring the right of priority; Setting up the system of enhancing international search and preliminary examination;adding missing elements and parts of the international application,which claim in the right of priority;Taking into Account Results of Earlier Search.This paper discusses three proposals put forward by the PCT Working Group for Reform in the Chapter Three,and points out the reasons that they cannot be adopted.They are related to the substantive content of the invention.These three proposals include:Making further uses of international search and preliminary examination,Publication of international application in multiple languages,and the Delaration of the source of genetic resources and traditional knowledge in patent application.At last,it is coming to the conclusion by analyzing the contents, amendments and signaficance of Treaty and its Regulation.The development tendency of the PCT is to meet the requirements of the applicants constantly and attract them use PCT system so that a general and broad platform for international applications can be established.Meanwhile, the future of the unadopted proposals are analyzed according to the development tendency of PCT.