global

Major international agreements are as follows. Context is provided in the broader discussion of Intellectual Property elsewhere on this site.

     Paris

The 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property supplies basic norms such as national treatment and convention priority rights for foreign patent applications and other IP such as trademarks.

     UPOV

The 1961 International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (aka the Union Internationale pour la Protection des Obtentions Végétales or UPOV).

     PCT

The 1970 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) establishes a procedure for the international filing, publication, search and preliminary examination of international applications. The Treaty does not have
authority to grant patents, which remains with national offices.

     Strasbourg

The 1971 Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification (IPC) updates the International Patent
Classification (IPC), used by most nations.

     Budapest

The 1977 Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patents (1977) governs procedure for the deposit of a sample microorganism, described in a patent application, with an International Depositary Authority (IDA). It eliminates the need to deposit microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure in each country in which protection is sought: a single deposit with one IDA is recognized by all member nations.




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