In June, Uruguay committed to join the Patent Cooperation Treaty
(“PCT” or “Treaty”), with unanimous approval
from both houses of parliament.
The PCT—first signed in 1970, effective for 35 years and
currently covering 157 contracting countries—is an essential
milestone for the globalization of patent law and, consequently,
for the protection of inventions at an international level. The
Treaty allows patent applicants more time to seek protection for
their industrial property rights in all signatory jurisdictions,
while reducing costs and bureaucracy in doing so.
In Latin America, 14 countries are signatories to the Treaty, an
adoption rate of 70% relative to all members of the region.
Although this figure is lower than the estimated global adoption
rate of 81.3%, the region has enormous potential for growth.
According to an official report made available by WIPO in
2023, Latin America was responsible for originating 1,127 patent
application filings through the PCT system, with Brazil leading the
statistics, accounting for 548 filings with the INPI as the
Receiving Body. This shows that the patent landscape in the region
has ample opportunities for development, indicating a promising
future for strengthening the patent system in Latin America.
It is in this context that unanimous approval for Uruguay
becoming the 158th signatory to the Treaty is welcomed. According
to WIPO statistics, Uruguay has the 92nd-highest number of patent
applications filed each year, predominantly in the Life Sciences
area (35.7% of all filings). It is therefore to be expected that
more inventions in the area will be protected on the international
stage—which, as a consequence of the nature of the patent
system, also ramps up technological development in the sector.
FILING UNDER THE PCT SYSTEM
The PCT system allows patent applications to be
internationalized in a uniform and practical way.
To do this, the applicant must, within 12 months of the earliest
filing for the invention they are seeking to protect (i.e. the
Priority), file an International Application before any of the
Patent Offices that act as Receiving Offices, or before the
International Bureau of WIPO.
After the International Filing, the International Search
Authority (ISA)1 indicated by the applicant
will provide the Priority Search Report, as well as a non-binding
Opinion as to the patentability of the invention analyzed. The
applicant may also request a Supplementary International Search and
a Supplementary Patentability Opinion to be carried out by a second
International Search Authority.
The international phase of the PCT System lasts around 18
months, which gives the Applicant a total of 30 months from the
Priority Date to file for the National Phase before the patent
office of another signatory country.
The PCT procedure offers clear advantages to the applicant for
global protection of the invention:
A 30-month period between the filing of the Priority and the
Entry into the National Phase before other patent offices of
signatory countries.
This prevents Priority from being used as a prior art against
applications in each country during the 30-month period. Because of
this, the applicant has (i) an extended period of time to decide in
which territories they might protect their invention; and (ii) time
to carry out the necessary procedures.
The International Search Authority’s prior art search and a
technical opinion on the patentability of the invention.
The technical opinion on patentability provided by an ISA
analyzes the novelty and non-obviousness requirements in relation
to the relevant gathered prior art. Although it has no binding
effect over the patent offices of the countries that are
signatories to the Treaty, a positive position of the ISA is
received as a strong argument for patentability.
Footnote
1 WIPO maintains a list of International Search Authorities on its
website.
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Publish date : 2024-07-09 11:57:00
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