PARIS CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. A treaty designed to unify and streamline patent prosecutions and trademark applications among the signatories. • The Convention eased the harsh effects of the first-to-file priority rule by allowing an applicant in any member country one year in which to apply in other member countries while maintaining the application’s original priority date. It also banned patent-protection discrimination against residents of other member nations. Now administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations, the Convention was first signed in 1883 and revised most recently in 1970. — Often shortened to Paris Convention. — Also termed Paris Industrial Property Convention.

“The 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is the cornerstone of the international patent granting system. It represents the first efforts of several countries to adopt a common approach to industrial property. The fundamental principles of ‘right of priority’ and ‘national treatment’ set out by the Convention have been of capital importance to the internationalization of intellectual property rights over the last century.” Marta Pertegás Sender, Cross-Border Enforcement of Patent Rights 4 (2002).

[Blacks Law 8th]