The Paris Convention is the oldest multilateral treaty for the protection of industrial property. It applies to industrial property rights, including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, trade names, indications of source, appellations of origin and the repression of unfair competition. The substantive provisions of the Convention fall into three main categories: national treatment, right of priority and common rules. The Convention mandates that each contracting State must grant the same advantages to nationals of other contracting States as it grants to its own nationals in matters related to industrial property. The right of priority in the case of patents means that, on the basis of a regular first application filed in one of the contracting States, the applicant may, within a certain period of time apply for protection in any of the other contracting States; these later applications will then be regarded as if they had been filed on the same day as the first application. In other words, these later applications will have priority over applications that may have been filed during the said period of time by other persons for the same invention, utility model, mark or industrial design.
By becoming a party to this instrument, a State facilitates its nationals in obtaining protection for their inventions in other contracting States. This encourages the transfer of technology to contracting States and creates an economic climate that attracts foreign investments.
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was revised on 6 November 1925 at The Hague, on 2 June 1934 in London, on 31 October 1958 in Lisbon and on 14 July 1967 in Stockholm. It was further modified on 28 September 1979. The Assembly, the Executive Committee, and the International Bureau of WIPO carry out the administrative tasks of the Convention. In 2003 the number of patents worldwide was estimated at some 3.7 million. The Paris Convention also created the International Union for Industrial Property.