International Intellectual Property

Each nation has its own legislation with regard to intellectual property. Thus, in order to facilitate access to intellectual property rights, many countries have established international conventions and systems.
While this is not an exhaustive list, the following may be cited:

• The PCT system, managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is a patent application filing process performed via a single procedure in the desired country of among more than 150, without having to first provide a translation of the application or to pay national taxes. 
• The Madrid Arrangement and Hague Agreements allow, respectively, the protection of a trademark or a design in some or all of the Member States of the International Convention by filing a unique international application with WIPO. 
• The European patent enables applicants to obtain a patent for all of the more than 40 designated countries, by means of a single filing and a single procedure. This European patent will then be split into as many national patents as there are designated countries. 
• The European Union trademark and the Community design are particularly advanced systems which give access to a right of protection throughout the whole of the territory of the European Union.

The unitary patent system is currently still pending due to a halt in the ratification process in Germany.