What is the Paris Convention?
The Paris Convention is a treaty, adhered to by about 110 countries, which helps those who wish to obtain patent protection in more than one country. To illustrate how the treaty helps an applicant, consider the inventor who desires to apply for patent protection in countries A and B (both of which adhere to the Paris Convention). If there were no Paris Convention, then for the best chances of obtaining a patent in both countries, the inventor would have to file in both countries simultaneously or nearly simultaneously because the publication of the patent in country A would bar filing a patent application in country B. Because of the Convention, however, the inventor need only file in one of the two countries, say country A, and may postpone filing in country B for almost a year. When the filing is done in country B the applicant merely “claims priority” from the filing in country A, and the patent office in country B will treat the country-B application as if it had been filed on the
The Paris Convention is an international convention for promoting trade among the member countries, devised to facilitate protection of industrial property simultaneously in the member countries without any loss in the priority date. All the member countries provide national treatment to all the applications from the other member countries for protection of industrial property rights. The Convention was first signed in 1883. Since then, the Convention has been revised several times, in 1900 at Brussels, in 1911 at Washington, in 1925 at the Hague, in 1934 at London, in 1958 at Lisbon and in 1967 at Stockholm. The last amendment took place in 1979.
