The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), with 158 Contracting States, is a fundamental legal instrument used in the filing, searching, and examination of patent applications. This matchless book provides in-depth and extensive annotations to the entire text of the PCT as of 2024, with explanations of legal principles, cross references and interrelations between legal provisions, and an extensive index. Resulting from a meticulous fusion of the two preeminent works PCT Strategy and Practice (2021) and PCT-Handbuch (17th edition, 2023), it represents the most comprehensive commentary on the PCT.

With its introductions and annotations, the book offers its users such practical benefits as the following:

* quick retrieval of answers to practical legal questions;
* a hierarchically organized and logical structure following the articles and rules of the PCT;
* a paragraph by paragraph commentary; and
* options available to the applicant at the various stages, including factors to consider in making a choice between them.

The authors – all intellectual property experts with direct involvement with PCT development and strategy – bring inside knowledge from their work at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). This book will prove indispensable for patent lawyers worldwide as well as for trainees preparing for examinations such as the European Qualifying Examination. Patent professionals will find a wealth of guidance for day-to-day practice.