Three new countries join the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Over the last few months, Jamaica, Iraq and Cape Verde have joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty, taking the total number of contracting states up to 156. Other countries/regions covered by the Patent Cooperation Treaty include the US, China, Europe, Korea and Japan.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) makes it possible to file a single centralised PCT patent application covering all of the PCT contracting states, and then at a later date enter the “national phase” in particular countries/regions of interest. The PCT patent application can therefore be used to defer filing in particular individual countries/regions. This deferral allows the invention to further develop commercially before incurring the costs of the patent application procedure in multiple countries/regions. The PCT system includes search and examination procedures, and therefore also enables the applicant to evaluate the prospects of successfully obtaining granted patents before incurring the costs of the application procedure in multiple countries/regions.

The accession of Jamaica, Iraq and Cape Verde to the PCT will provide significant advantages for nationals of those countries seeking to protect their inventions worldwide, by providing access to the PCT system. Furthermore, going forwards, PCT applicants will be able to seek protection in Jamaica, Iraq and/or Cape Verde via their PCT applications.