The Patent Cooperation Treaty, also called PCT, is a multilateral agreement administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, since 1978.
The Patent Cooperation Treaty, PCT, as its name indicates, regulates international cooperation in the field of patents and through this agreement a faster and more efficient procedure is established, which facilitates the inventors of the different member countries the processing of applications when the protection is intended to be extended to several territories simultaneously.
The procedure for the registration of a Patent using the PCT consists of two stages, an INTERNATIONAL PHASE, which begins with the filing of the “international” application at the Receiving Office, then at the International Bureau (WIPO) and the International Searching Authority (ISA), in this phase the same filing date is granted at the international level, the same examination of formalities, international search, international publication, as well as the international preliminary examination. After that, a NATIONAL or REGIONAL PHASE must be carried out in each of the offices of the countries chosen for the protection of the patent, 30 months after the priority or filing date of the patent application.
According to data offered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, for 2015 the number of international applications filed using the Patent Cooperation Treaty, PCT, was 218,000, which is equivalent to 1.7% more compared to 2014, with the most used fields of technology being the following: Computer Science (8.2%), Digital Communication (8%), Machines, Electronic Apparatus and Electrical Energy (7.3%), Medical Technology (6.3%) and Transportation (4.3%)[1].
Also the top 10 PCT applicants have been[2]:
Huawei Technologies (3,898).
Qualcomm (2,442)
ZTE (2,155)
Samsung Electronics (1,683)
Mitsubishi Electric (1,593)
Ericsson (1,481)
LG Electronics (1,457)
Sony (1,381)
Phillips Electronics (1,378)
Hewlett-Packard (1,310)[3]
[1] Percentage in relation to total.
[2] Number of published applications
[3] http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/ipstats/es/docs/infographics_pct_2015.pdf