Uruguay Joining PCT in 2025
From 7th January 2025 Uruguay (UY) will be bound by the PCT. Hence, international applications filed on or after 7th January 2025 will automatically designate Uruguay.
Reservation Elected: Uruguay has elected under Article 64(1)(a) of the PCT not to be bound by Chapter II of the PCT, and will be the only Contracting State with that election. The consequence of the Article 64(1)(a) election is that where either the sole applicant is or all the applicants are a resident or national of Uruguay they will not be eligible to request international preliminary examination of their international application. Under Article 31(2)(a) a demand for international preliminary examination can only be made by an applicant who is a resident or national of a Contracting State bound by Chapter II, and whose international application has been filed with the Receiving Office of or acting for such State.
Article 31(2)(b) provides a possible exception to Article 31(2)(a), but it requires the PCT Assembly of Contracting States to decide to allow persons entitled to file international applications to make a demand for international preliminary examination even if they are residents or nationals of a State not bound by Chapter II. Currently there is no indication that the PCT Assembly will activate Article 31(2)(b) in this regard.
Consequently, if an applicant from Uruguay wants their international application to undergo international preliminary examination, it will require that they are a co-applicant of an international application filed with a Receiving Office of, or acting for, a Contracting State other than Uruguay, where at least one of the other applicants is a resident or national of that Contracting State. Currently residents or nationals of Uruguay can be a co-applicant of an international application provided that at least one of the other co-applicants is a resident or national of a Contracting State bound by Chapter II where the international application has been filed with the Receiving Office of, or acting for, that Contracting State. Hence, for residents or nationals of Uruguay, the main change is that they will be able to be applicants of international applications in their own right.
Why Consider Designating Uruguay?: Spanish is the official language, and there are high levels of literacy and educational attainment amongst its population of around 3.5 million, all of whom have access to electricity and clean water. About 95% of the population is urban and there is a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure and very high levels of internet use. Uruguay has a land area of just over 175,000 sq kms, over 85% of which is agricultural land, with about 75% of that being in pasture, 10% being arable land and 10% in forestry. Uruguay has a 3-tier judicial system and is amongst the top Latin American countries for real GDP per capita and exports exceed imports.
Remarkable Growth of PCT Membership: The Patent Co-Operation Treaty began in 1978 and has had one of the most successful uptakes of membership of any IP Treaty. From just a dozen members in January 1978, it currently has 157 members and this will be 158 when Uruguay becomes bound on 7th January 2025.
Please check out Pipers interactive PCT map at https://piperpat.com/page/map. To see how quickly countries joined the PCT bandwagon you can either click on the 'next year' button to progress through the years up to the current year or you can click the 'animate map' button.
Authors: Quinn Miller and Jim Piper
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