Patent Co-operation Treaty

Another convention is the Patent Co-operation Treaty, to which the United Kingdom is a party along with members in both North and South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as most of the EPC countries and other European countries. This facilitates, making many national applications by filing in the single Patent Office. Thereafter, the individual national procedures operate independently, leading again to separate national patents. 

The Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) came into existence in 1970 and became operational in 1978. 

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