The UK has already carried out the regulatory changes necessary
to implement the Treaty, so no further legislative changes are
required.
The Patent Law Treaty, which was adopted by the member states of
WIPO in 2000, is intended to harmonise and streamline, on a
worldwide basis, formal patent procedures relating to national and
regional patent applications and maintenance of patents.
The Treaty does not attempt to harmonise patent laws. Instead,
the approach is more to the administrative side of the patent
process.
At present, inventors seeking patent protection must follow
certain rules. Some inventors lose their potential right to a
patent because they make mistakes with these rules. The rules vary
from country to country, which compounds the difficulty for the
inventor. The Treaty simplifies the rules and makes them the same
in all participating countries.
The Treaty came into force in April last year, following its
ratification by 10 countries.
Thanks to John Lambert's nipclaw blog for bringing
this development to our attention.
