Iraq Joins the Patent Cooperation Treaty

As per the publication by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 1 of February 2022, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations Office in Geneva deposited the instrument of Iraq’s accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). During his speech, the Permanent Representative said that accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty will make the patent system in Iraq more efficient and that the procedures will be less costly for applicants seeking international patent protection, pointing out its great importance to motivate Iraqi inventors to contribute more to progress.

On a related note, industrial and technological protection and their intellectual property 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 instrument of accession. Thus, the number of member states in the treaty is 155, and this is the fourth treaty to which Iraq is a party out of (26) treaties in the World Intellectual Property Organization.