Patent Cooperation Treaty

The Patent Cooperation Treaty, commonly abbreviated PCT, is an international patent law treaty concluded in 1970. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. An application filed under the treaty is called an international application, or a PCT application, so an inventor can begin protection in many countries through one filing procedure rather than separate national filings from the outset. The treaty is a central instrument of international intellectual property law and is administered as a procedural framework, not as a grant of patents itself.