The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ("Paris Convention") is one of the earliest multi-national treaties for protecting inventions and promoting human innovations. It was first signed on March 20, 1883, and it is governed by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Israel signed the treaty in 1950.
The objective of the Paris Convention is two-fold: (a) defending against the undesirable loss of patent protection by providing a safe and confidential filing platform and database and (b) assuring that the various state patent laws work in harmony.
Essentially, any applicant from a member state who has filed an application for a patent, design or trademark in a member state enjoys the rights conferred by the Paris Convention when filing that application in the member states. The protection of rights is based on priority filing date, which is the earliest filing date of an application filed in any member state provided that the applicant, or his successor in title, files a subsequent application within 12 months for patents or 6 months for industrial designs and trademarks. Ask Dr. Sharona Lahav about the Paris Convention to learn more and get the widest scope of protection for your invention.
