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 right of priority or 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 industrial designs and trademarks) or 12 months (for patents and utility models) 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.

See also

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

References

• Guide to the Application of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property As Revised at Stockholm in 1967, G.H.C. Bodenhausen, (World Intellectual Property; February 1, 1968) ISBN 92-805-0368-5

External links

• Paris Convention page on the WIPO web site (http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/index.html)
• Haberman v Comptroller (http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2003/430.html): an interesting and well-written decision that helps to understand the concept of priority.