On June 21, 2024, the Executive Branch enacted the bill of accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), with reservation of Chapter II of the Treaty.
The PCT is an international treaty administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The PCT is procedural in nature as it allows the filing of patent applications in several countries around the world based on a single application. This treaty simplifies the patenting procedure and extends the term to make strategic decisions on which countries to seek patent protection. With Uruguay, there will be 158 States members of the PCT.
The PCT aims to standardize procedural requirements and reduce costs when protecting an invention in more than one State. At the same time, national inventors wishing to protect their inventions abroad, as well as foreigners wishing to apply for registration of their inventions in Uruguay, have up to 30 months from the initial application to start the national phase (currently, according to Uruguayan law and based on the Paris Convention, patent applicants only have 12 months from the first application to apply for the patent in any other country).
During the "international phase" of the Treaty, patent applicants must request an international search to a designated patent office within the PCT framework. This provides greater legal predictability for patent applicants and significant cost savings in meeting the expenses of patenting procedures.
It should be clarified that the PCT does not allow the grant of international patents. The grant of patents remains the exclusive power of each State party (for which it uses its internal patentability criteria), in what is known as the "national phase" of the Treaty.
As mentioned above, the Uruguayan government approved the accession to the PCT with the reservation of Chapter II. Therefore, Uruguay has excluded the possibility of patent applicants of requesting an international preliminary examination by a foreign patent office designated under the Treaty.
The PCT will become effective three months from the date Uruguay deposits the instrument of accession to the Treaty with the WIPO.