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The States party to the PCT constitute the International Patent Cooperation Union. As of April 11, 2006, there were 130 Contracting States to the PCT. The PCT will enter into force for the Lao People's Democratic Republic , the 129th Contracting State, on June 14, 2006, and for Honduras , the 130th Contracting State, on June 20, 2006. HISTORY The Washington Diplomatic Conference on the Patent Cooperation Treaty took place from May 25 to June 19 , 1970 . The Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed in Washington at the very end of the conference, i.e. on June 19, 1970. The Treaty entered into force on January 21 1978 initially with 18 Contracting States. The first international applications were filed on June 1 1978. The Treaty was subsequently amended in 1979 , and modified in 1984 and 2001 . ACCESSION Any Contracting State to the Paris Convention For The Protection Of Industrial Property can become a member of the PCT. A majority of the world's countries are signatories to the PCT, including all of the major industrialised countries (except Argentina for instance). As of August 2005 , 128 countries were party to the PCT. PROCEDURE The main advantages of the PCT procedure, also referred to as the international procedure, are the possibility to delay as much as possible the national or regional procedures, and the respective fees and translation costs, and the unified filing procedure. Filing The first step of the procedure consists in filing an ''international (patent) application'' with a suitable patent office, called the ''Receiving Office'' (RO). This application is usually called an ''international application'' since it does not result in an international patent nor in a PCT patent (which do not exist). The international application needs to be filed in one language only. At least one applicant (either a Physical or Legal Person ) must be a National or Resident of a Contracting State to the PCT, otherwise no international filing date is accorded. On filing of the international application, all Contracting States are automatically designated. Search A search or ''international search'' is then made by an authorized ''International Searching Authority'' (ISA) to find out the most relevant Prior Art documents regarding the claimed subject-matter. This results in an ''International Search Report'' (ISR), together with a written opinion regarding Patentability . The ISR is normally provided by the ISA to the applicant 9 months after filing of the application in the event of a first filing and 16 months after the Priority Date in the event of a subsequent filing (i.e. claiming the priority of a first filing). The ISR is published together with the international application (or as soon as possible afterwards). The written opinion is initially confidential, but unless it is superseded by an ''International Preliminary Examination Report'' (see optional examination, below) it is made available in the form of an "''international preliminary report on patentability (Chapter I of the Patent Cooperation Treaty)''" (commonly abbreviated "''IPRP Chapter I''") 30 months after the filing date or the priority date if any (Rule 44''bis''.1(b) {Link without Title} ). Publication 18 months after the filing date or the priority date if any, the international application is published by the ''International Bureau'' (IB) of , then the application is not automatically published (Art. 64(3) {Link without Title} {Link without Title} ). Optional examination Afterwards, a ''international preliminary examination'' may optionally be requested ("demanded"). The "international examination" is achieved by an authorized ''International Preliminary Examination Authority'' (IPEA). This results in an ''International Preliminary Examination Report'' (IPER). Since 2004, the IPER now bears the title "''international preliminary report on patentability (Chapter II of the Patent Cooperation Treaty)''" (commonly abbreviated "''IPRP Chapter II''") (Rule 70.15(b) {Link without Title} ). When an examination is demanded, the contracting states for which the examination is demanded are called ''Elected Offices'' (under ''Chapter II''), otherwise they are called ''Designated Offices'' (under ''Chapter I''). National and regional phases Finally, at 30 months from the filing date of the international application or from the priority date if any, the international phase ends and the international application enters in national or regional phase. However, any national law may fix time limits which expire later than 30 months. For instance, it is possible to enter the European regional phase at 31 months from the priority date. National and regional phases can also be started earlier on the express request of the applicant (Art. 20(3) or 40(2) [http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/texts/articles/a40.htm#_40 ). If the entry into national or regional phase is not performed within the prescribed time limit, the international application generally ceases to have the effect of a national or regional application (Art. 24(1)(iii) {Link without Title} ). TRIVIA The millionth international application (or PCT application) was filed at the end of 2004 {Link without Title} . REFERENCES
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