(1) The States party to this Treaty (hereinafter called “the Contracting States”) constitute a Union for cooperation in the filing, searching, and examination, of applications for the protection of inventions, and for rendering special technical services. The Union shall be known as the International Patent Cooperation Union.

(2) No provision of this Treaty shall be interpreted as diminishing the rights under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of any national or resident of any country party to that Convention.

For the purposes of this Treaty and the Regulations and unless expressly stated otherwise:

• (i) “application” means an application for the protection of an invention; references to an “application” shall be construed as references to applications for patents for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility certificates, utility models, patents or certificates of addition, inventors’ certificates of addition, and utility certificates of addition;

• (ii) references to a “patent” shall be construed as references to patents for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility certificates, utility models, patents or certificates of addition, inventors’ certificates of addition, and utility certificates of addition;

• (iii) “national patent” means a patent granted by a national authority;

• (iv) “regional patent” means a patent granted by a national or an intergovernmental authority having the power to grant patents effective in more than one State;

• (v) “regional application” means an application for a regional patent;

• (vi) references to a “national application” shall be construed as references to applications for national patents and regional patents, other than applications filed under this Treaty;

• (vii) “international application” means an application filed under this Treaty;

• (viii) references to an “application” shall be construed as references to international applications and national applications;

• (ix) references to a “patent” shall be construed as references to national patents and regional patents;

• (x) references to “national law” shall be construed as references to the national law of a Contracting State or, where a regional application or a regional patent is involved, to the treaty providing for the filing of regional applications or the granting of regional patents;

• (xi) “priority date,” for the purposes of computing time limits, means:

• (a) where the international application contains a priority claim under Article 8, the filing date of the application whose priority is so claimed;

• (b) where the international application contains several priority claims under Article 8, the filing date of the earliest application whose priority is so claimed;

• (c) where the international application does not contain any priority claim under Article 8, the international filing date of such application;

• (xii) “national Office” means the government authority of a Contracting State entrusted with the granting of patents; references to a “national Office” shall be construed as referring also to any intergovernmental authority which several States have entrusted with the task of granting regional patents, provided that at least one of those States is a Contracting State, and provided that the said States have authorized that authority to assume the obligations and exercise the powers which this Treaty and the Regulations provide for in respect of national Offices;

• (xiii) “designated Office” means the national Office of or acting for the State designated by the applicant under Chapter I of this Treaty;

• (xiv) “elected Office” means the national Office of or acting for the State elected by the applicant under Chapter II of this Treaty;

• (xv) “receiving Office” means the national Office or the intergovernmental organization with which the international application has been filed;

• (xvi) “Union” means the International Patent Cooperation Union;

• (xvii) “Assembly” means the Assembly of the Union; (xviii) “Organization” means the World Intellectual Property Organization;

• (xix) “International Bureau” means the International Bureau of the Organization and, as long as it subsists, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI);

• (xx) “Director General” means the Director General of the Organization and, as long as BIRPI subsists, the Director of BIRPI.

(1) Applications for the protection of inventions in any of the Contracting States may be filed as international applications under this Treaty.

(2) An international application shall contain, as specified in this Treaty and the Regulations, a request, a description, one or more claims, one or more drawings (where required), and an abstract.

(3) The abstract merely serves the purpose of technical information and cannot be taken into account for any other purpose, particularly not for the purpose of interpreting the scope of the protection sought.

(4) The international application shall:

• (i) be in a prescribed language;

• (ii) comply with the prescribed physical requirements;

• (iii) comply with the prescribed requirement of unity of invention;

• (iv) be subject to the payment of the prescribed fees.

(1) The request shall contain:

• (i) a petition to the effect that the international application be processed according to this Treaty;

• (ii) the designation of the Contracting State or States in which protection for the invention is desired on the basis of the international application (“designated States”); if for any designated State a regional patent is available and the applicant wishes to obtain a regional patent rather than a national patent, the request shall so indicate; if, under a treaty concerning a regional patent, the applicant cannot limit his application to certain of the States party to that treaty, designation of one of those States and the indication of the wish to obtain the regional patent shall be treated as designation of all the States party to that treaty; if, under the national law of the designated State, the designation of that State has the effect of an application for a regional patent, the designation of the said State shall be treated as an indication of the wish to obtain the regional patent;

• (iii) the name of and other prescribed data concerning the applicant and the agent (if any);

• (iv) the title of the invention;

• (v) the name of and other prescribed data concerning the inventor where the national law of at least one of the designated States requires that these indications be furnished at the time of filing a national application. Otherwise, the said indications may be furnished either in the request or in separate notices addressed to each designated Office whose national law requires the furnishing of the said indications but allows that they be furnished at a time later than that of the filing of a national application.

(2) Every designation shall be subject to the payment of the prescribed fee within the prescribed time limit.

(3) Unless the applicant asks for any of the other kinds of protection referred to in Article 43, designation shall mean that the desired protection consists of the grant of a patent by or for the designated State. For the purposes of this paragraph, Article 2(ii) shall not apply.

(4) Failure to indicate in the request the name and other prescribed data concerning the inventor shall have no consequence in any designated State whose national law requires the furnishing of the said indications but allows that they be furnished at a time later than that of the filing of a national application. Failure to furnish the said indications in a separate notice shall have no consequence in any designated State whose national law does not require the furnishing of the said indications.

The description shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be carried out by a person skilled in the art.

The claim or claims shall define the matter for which protection is sought. Claims shall be clear and concise. They shall be fully supported by the description.

(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (2)(ii), drawings shall be required when they are necessary for the understanding of the invention.

(2) Where, without being necessary for the understanding of the invention, the nature of the invention admits of illustration by drawings:

(i) the applicant may include such drawings in the international application when filed,

(ii) any designated Office may require that the applicant file such drawings with it within the prescribed time limit.