Paris Convention

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, first
adopted in 1883, is the major international agreement providing basic
rights for protecting industrial property. It covers patents, industrial
designs, service marks, trade names, indications of source, and unfair
competition. The U.S. ratified this treaty in May of 1887. The treaty
provides two fundamental rights:

- The principle of national treatment provides that nationals of any
signatory nation shall enjoy in all other countries of the union the
advantages that each nation's laws grant to its own nationals.
- The right of priority enables any resident or national of a member
country to, first, file a patent application in any member country
and, thereafter, to file a patent application for the same invention
in any of the other member countries within 12 months of the original
filing and receive benefit of the original filing date. The resident
or national of a member country also can claim the filing date of a
trademark application or industrial design filed in another member
country within six months of the filing date in his or her own
country or country of residence.