The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on March 20, 1883, is an important and one of the first intellectual property treaties. Thanks to this treaty, intellectual property systems, including patents, of any contracting state are accessible to the nationals of other states party to the Convention.

The priority right is also established by this treaty: it provides that an applicant from one contracting State shall be able to use its first filing date (in one of the contracting State) as the effective filing date in another contracting State, provided that he files another application within 6 (for trademarks) or 12 months (for patents) from the first filing.

History

After a diplomatic conference in Paris in 1880, the Convention was signed in 1883 by 11 countries: Belgium, Brazil, France, Guatemala, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Salvador, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland.

The Treaty was revised at Brussels, Belgium, on December_14, 1900, at Washington, United States, on June_2, 1911, at The Hague, The Netherlands, on November_6, 1925, at London, United Kingdom, on June_2, 1934, at Lisbon, Portugal, on October_31, 1958, and at Stockholm, Sweden, on July_14, 1967, and was amended on September_28, 1979.

The Convention has now about 164 country members, which makes it one of the most widely adopted (or maybe the most adopted) treaty worldwide (though Taiwan is not party of the Convention).

Administration

The Paris Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Related articles

Intellectual property, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)

External links

• Paris Convention page on the WIPO web site
• Haberman v Comptroller: an interesting and well-written decision that helps to understand the concept of priority.

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