Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ( Paris Convention ) is one of the first international treaties in the field of intellectual property law. It is administered by WIPO and was closed on 20 March 1883 and last modified in 1979.

Addition to patent, trademark ( brands), design right It also includes the repression of unfair competition. Among other things, uniform rules for patents and trademarks are therein agreed.

For example, it was agreed that in none of the countries of the Union the use of patented equipment on board ships, in certain cases, is regarded as an interference with the rights of the patentee.

Preliminary work began in 1873 and led in 1883 to a first version, which has since been amended several times. Meanwhile include 174 countries in this Agreement but not all of the current (Stockholm ) version.

The most important control is the priority ( Article 4 of the Paris Convention ), also known as Union priority. If a property right registered in a Member State, it may be filed claiming the priority of the first application within a priority deadline of one year for patents and utility models, and six months for trademarks and designs in any other Member State. Any priority between different types of IP rights is not fully possible. So no priorities can for example be claimed from designs for a patent application at the European Patent Office.

The priority right is therefore for the patent applicant important because only an invention can be protected by a patent, which is new compared to the prior art, and involves an inventive step. If a priority is claimed for a patent application, it is for the assessment of novelty and inventive step, the priority date significantly, ie the filing date of the priority application, so that interim releases are not considered.

Another principle of the Paris Convention is the principle of national treatment, which is enshrined in Article 2 of the Paris Convention I. The principle states that the members of each of the countries of the Union in all other countries of the Association in relation to the protection of industrial property enjoy the benefits which will grant the relevant laws to its own nationals currently or grant in the future.

Furthermore, an adjusting source clause found in Article 6 of the Paris Convention quinquies (French Just as it is ). "Any duly registered in the country of origin, trade name or brand is as it is, are subject to the disclaimer of this article permitted and protected in the other countries of the Union for the deposit. "

Under Article 19 of the Paris Convention countries may individually meet with each other special agreements for the protection of industrial property, provided that such agreements do not contravene the provisions of the Paris Convention. Such special agreements such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT ), which regulates a common application procedure for all its Contracting States, or the European Patent Convention (EPC ), which unifies and centralizes the process for the grant of a patent for its Contracting States. Even the Madrid Agreement concerning the international registration of marks is such a special dressing.

Germany was the Paris Convention for a long time hostile to and occurred only with effect from May 1, 1903 the contract with.