GENEVA, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO )is planning to kick off reforms on the international patent filing system next year in a bid to provide patent protection in multiple countries.

    According to a WIPO press release on Wednesday, a series of reforms to the WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), ranging from a simplified patent filing system in certain countries to an enhanced search and preliminary examination system, will facilitate the complex procedure of obtaining patent protection inseveral countries.

    The PCT, a highly successful international filing system for patents, simplifies the first steps that all inventors and applicants seeking international protection must take and as such is the preferred filing route for many companies as well as individual inventors.

    The WIPO said the reform process, launched under the auspices of the WIPO in mid-2001, seeks to improve the efficiency of the PCT and accelerate the process for inventors and applicants to obtain patents worldwide in more than 120 countries by submitting a single "international" application.

    The international organization said a rapid rise in the demand for patent applications globally and growing technological complexity of patent applications have severely tested the capacity of patent offices throughout the world to deal with the rising number of applications in a timely and efficient manner.

    These factors, coupled with a growing momentum to develop more efficient worldwide patent systems, have prompted the reform driveby various stakeholders in their endeavor to develop an international system that is accessible, fair and balanced, according to the WIPO. Enditem