World Intellectual Property Organization
an intergovernmental organization of the United Nations system. WIPO is responsible for the promotion of the protection of intellectual property throughout the world and for the administration of various multilateral treaties dealing with the legal and administrative aspects of intellectual property.
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time period when a maintenance fee can be paid with or without a surcharge.
— see MPEP 2506
Time period after which a utility patent (that issues from an application filed on or after 12 December 1980) expires if a maintenance fee has not been paid. A petition must be filed along with the appropriate fees to reinstate an expired patent.
— see MPEP 2590
WIPO Copyright Treaty
Protect useful processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter.
May be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new, useful, and nonobvious process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement there of.
United States Patent and Trademark Office, designation became effective April 3, 2000; a result of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999.