START Treaty

In the late 1980s and 1990s Russia was facing a serious problem large-scale withdrawal of nuclear vessels from military service began. The main causes were the expiration of design service life of such vessels and the commitments of the Russian Federation under the START Treaty. 

TREATY ON THE REDUCTION AND LIMITATION OF STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE ARMS (START I). The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) signed the Treaty on the Reduction and I. imitation of Strategic Offensive Arms on 31 July 1991. Known commonly as START I, this treaty entered into force on 5 December 1994. START I obliges the United States and USSR to make reductions in their offensive strategic nuclear forces over a seven-year period. In 1994, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine assumed START I obligations when the Protocol to Facilitate the Implementation of the START Treaty (1992 Lisbon Protocol) entered into force. Today none of these three states possesses nuclear weapons. See also TREATY ON FURTHER REDUCTION AND LIMITATION OF STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE ARMS (START ff). 

The Isolation Policy of Japan started from the beginning of the 17th century and ended in 1854 when four 5/ac directed by Commodore M. C. Peny (1794-1858) of USA visited Uraga, a small town near Yokohama in 1853 and concluded the Treaty of the Peace and Amity in Yokohama in 1854. The big Black Ships constmcted with iron, which can float on water, brought a big surprise to all Japanese, and Japanese Government had to open the country for trade and other exchanges to all foreign countries under the power of big cannons, which Japanese had never seen. Then, the Isolation Policy of Japan ended. 

The procedure for obtaining a patent is typically started by filing a national patent application in a patent office of a country which is party to the Paris Convention (an international treaty agreeing certain reciprocal patent rights). This application can provide a so-called priority date for the invention disclosed in this priority application such that the patentability of the invention is assessed as of that date. This priority date can given to further patent applications filed in other Paris Convention territories provided that these further patent applications are filed within 12 months of the first priority application. A patent application must be filed before any public disclosure of the invention since, in most territories, public disclosures before the priority date can be used to attack the novelty and non-obviousness of an invention described in a patent application. 

The TRIPS Agreement, one of the treaties enforced by the WTO, has set a 20-year patent life for all products, including pharmaceuticals. The clock starts when an application for a patent is filed with the appropriate national patent office. During that time companies have the exclusive right to sell the product within the national market. 

In addition to the amounts of civil plutonium, plutonium is being released from dismantled warheads. Under the START-I and -II Treaties, many thousands of US and Russian nuclear war-heads are slated to be retired within the next decade. As a result, at least 50 tonnes of plutonium from each side are expected to be removed from military programmes. 

Italy became a Consultative Party to the Treaty after the start of research activities at TNB in October 1987 and a full member of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in September 1988. 

Figure 1.1 shows the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the start of fossil fuel use. During the summer in the northern hemisphere, the carbon dioxide concentration decreases because of plant photosynthesis. The decrease is in the range of 5 to 15 parts per million. In the fall, this carbon dioxide is largely returned to the atmosphere. The figure shows the average for the year. Values beyond the year 2000 are projected as a simple continuation of current trends. The Kyoto Treaty line will be addressed later in this chapter. 

In 1942 US President Roosevelt started a biological weapon program, which, at least officially was shut down by Nixon in 1969. We stiU do not know for sure if some (or all) the countries, which signed in 1972 the Treaty to ban germ warfare agents, really did so agents were not specified, controls were non existent, ineffective and questionable (see Iraq s first Gulf war). 

Articles 31 to 42 PCT provide for an international preliminary examination to be performed during the international phase (Chapter II of the Patent Cooperation Treaty). Countries having acceded to the Patent Cooperation Treaty can make a declaration that they will not be bound by Chapter 11 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. An applicant resident in a country which is bound by Chapter II of the Patent Cooperation Treaty can make a request for an international preliminary examination to be performed for selected patent offices, known as elected offices . After the issue of the search report (and the international preliminary examination, if applicable and requested) the application passes to the national patent office of each of the designated countries and this is the start of the national phase of the procedure. On request of the applicant, a substantive examination takes place in each of the designated countries, (and the EPO, if designated), under the laws of that country. 

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