The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is one of the first intellectual properties. It was signed on March 20, 1883, and is still in force today.
The Paris Convention establishes what is known as the “Convention priority right,” which allows an applicant from one contracting State to rely on its first filing date in another contracting State as the effective filing date in the other State. With regards to utility patent applications, an Applicant can claim priority to an American Application in another country within a period of twelve months.
The vast majority of countries in the world are signatories to the Paris Convention.