What is the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)?
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international patent law treaty that provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in its contracting states. As stated in the MPEP, The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) enables the U.S. applicant to file one application, “an international application,” in a standardized format in English in the U.S. Receiving Office (the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), and have that application acknowledged as a regular national or regional filing in as many Contracting States to the PCT as the applicant “designates,” i.e., names, as countries or regions in which patent protection is desired.
The PCT streamlines the process of seeking patent protection internationally, allowing applicants to file a single application that can lead to patent protection in multiple countries.
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