BUDAPEST TREATY FULL TEXT

INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

Article 1. Establishment of a Union

The States party to this Treaty (hereinafter called "the Contacting States") constitute a Union for the international recognition of the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure.

Article 2. Definitions

For the purposes of this Treaty and the Regulations:

(i) references to a "patent" shall be construed as references to patents for inventions, inventors certificates, utility certificates, utility models, patents or certificates of addition, inventors certificates of addition, and utility certificates of addition;

(ii) "deposit of a microorganism" means, according to the context in which these words appear, the following acts effected in accordance with this Treaty and the Regulations, the transmittal of a micro-organism to an international depositary authority, which receives and accepts it, or the storage of such a micro-organism by the international depositary authority, or both the said transmittal and the said storage;

(iii) "patent procedure" means any administrative or judicial procedure relating to a patent application or a patent;

(iv) "publication for the purposes of patent procedure" means the official publication, or the official laying open for public inspection, of a patent application or a patent;

(v) "intergovernmental industrial property organization" means an organization that has field a declaration under Article 9(1);

(vi) "industrial property office" means an authority of a Contracting State or an intergovernmental industrial property organization competent for the grant of patents;

(vii) "depositary institution" means an institution which provides for the receipt, acceptance and storage of microorganisms and the furnishing of samples thereof;

(viii) "international depositary authority" means a depositary institution which has acquired the status of international depositary authority as provided in Article 7;

(ix) "depositor" means the natural person or legal entity transmitting a microorganism to an international depositary authority, which receives and accepts it, and any successor in title of the said natural person or legal entity;
(x) "Union" means the Union referred to in Article 1;

(xi) "Assembly" means the Assembly referred to in Article 10;

(xii) "Organization" means the World Intellectual Property Organization;

(xiii) "International Bureau" means the International Bureau of the Organization and, as long as it subsists, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI);

(xiv) "Director General" means the Director General of the Organization

(xv) "Regulations" means the Regulations referred to in Article 12.