International Conventions Related To Intellectual Property Rights

International Conventions Related To Intellectual Property Rights

- Lawz Bureau

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property  During the last century, before the existence of any international convention in the field of industrial property, it was difficult to obtain protection for industrial property rights in the various countries of the world because of the diversity of their laws. Moreover, patent applications had to be made roughly at the same time in all countries in order to avoid a publication in one country destroying the novelty of the invention in the other countries. These practical problems created a strong desire to overcome such difficulties.

During the second half of the last century the development of a more internationally oriented flow of technology and the increase of international trade made harmonization of industrial property laws urgent in both the patent and the trademark field.

When the Government of the Empire of Austria-Hungary invited the other countries to participate in an international exhibition of inventions held in 1873 at Vienna, participation was hampered by the fact that many foreign visitors were not willing to exhibit their inventions at that exhibition in view of the inadequate legal protection offered to exhibited inventions.