Samoa deposited its instrument of accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) on 02 October 2019. Close to 3.5 million PCT applications have been filed since the PCT became operational in 1978 with only 18 Contracting States. Samoa is now the 153rd Member State to join the PCT and the Treaty will enter into force for Samoa on 02 January 2020.

Samoa may be designated in PCT International applications once the Treaty has entered into force. Currently, the law in Samoa has not yet been amended to recognise the PCT. The PCT serves to assist applicants by providing a unified approach for filing patent applications globally. That is, by filing a single international patent application under the PCT, it enables the applicants to simultaneously seek protection in various other countries who are also Member States.

In addition to the above, Samoa has also deposited its instruments of accession for other two key treaties underpinning WIPO’s international IP systems including: the Geneva Act to Hague Agreement (industrial designs) and the Geneva Act to the Lisbon Agreement (geographical indications). The accession to these different treaties aims to harness the economic drivers of growth derived from the creativity and ideas found in intellectual property, and thus, boosting business development and wealth creation in Samoa.