Baghdad The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Iraq has joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, said in a statement: “Iraq has joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and joining this treaty will make the patent system in Iraq more efficient and that the procedures will be less costly for applicants seeking international patent protection.”
The Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Abdul Karim Hashem Mustafa, deposited the instrument of Iraq’s accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
In a speech, he pointed out its great importance to motivate Iraqi inventors to contribute more to industrial and technological progress and to protect their intellectual property.
He added that the Central Agency for Standardization and Quality Control in the Ministry of Planning granted 532 patent certificates during the year 2021 only, and more than 2,200 patent certificates since 2017.
It is noteworthy that the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) will enter into force three months after the deposit of the cheque of accession, bringing the number of member states to the treaty to 155, and this is the fourth treaty to which Iraq has acceded out of (26) treaties in the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency