El Salvador has consistently strived to develop its industrial activity; therefore it has embraced legislation to guarantee Industrial and Intellectual Property rights.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Law of Invention of Patents was enacted in El Salvador. Later, the Political Constitution of 1983 recognized privileged rights to discoverers, inventors and perfectionists of productive processes. Such provisions were widely developed in the Law of Promotion and Protection of Intellectual Property, issued by Decree No.604 on July 15th, 1993. (The definition for inventions is defined in title III, chapter II of said Law, and it reads as follows: "Invention is an idea applicable to the solution of a determined technical problem. It may be referred to a product, or to a procedure".) This law also indicates that in order to obtain protection for an invention in various countries, individual applications must be filed in each country. This law replace the Law of Inventions of Patents.
Additionally, El Salvador, who headed the negotiations for the Commercial Free Trade Agreement between Central American countries and The United States of America( “CAFTA”), ratified CAFTA on December 17, 2004 under Decree No. 555; however its enforcement was conditioned upon a series of amendments to, among others, the Law of Promotion and Protection of Intellectual Property. Therefore, on December 14, 2005, under Decree No. 912 the amendments were made to the law making El Salvador the first Central American country to enforce CAFTA.
On March 1st, 2006, under Decree No. 977, the Legislative Parliament ratified the Treaty for Cooperation in Patents Matters, (know as the “PCT” for its Spanish initials) that drastically simplified the protection in various countries, by simply presenting to the Receiving National Office of the PCT, a unique application (International Application) drafted in Spanish. Such application will produce the effects of a National Application among the members of the PCT, or in those countries in which the protection is requested. Once the patent is verified and a presentation date is assigned to the application, the Original Copy will be sent to the International Office of the OMPI; one copy will be sent to the administration responsible for conducting the International Search, and another copy will be kept by the receiving country in its Office.
The international search will be one the highest procedures in its level as it will enforce strict rules over the documents, and will be made by qualified personnel and methods used by very well experienced offices. It will be conducted over the patent document and the technical literature. The result will reveal notes of the previous technique; the corresponding claims of the international application; and will indicate the possible possession of novelty of the invention; the result will be sent to the International Office, for publication and a copy will be sent to the designated National Office.
The international publication will appear in the Newspaper of the PCT, which will be available in DVD and CD-Rom and will describe the invention itself and will determine the scope of its protection. A pamphlet will contain the data of the applicant, as well as the international classification of the patent, drawing, description, claims, and the report of the search. Additionally, there will also be an electronic format located at: www.ompi.int/pct/es/index.html. This publication will be placed for 18 months after the date of priority of the International Application. The International Office will communicate the results of the search to the National Office in order to initiate the local procedure in such country, since it is the only entity authorized to revise the Patents.
It is therefore imperative that the benefits granted by the PCT are understood, since this treaty will come into effect in El Salvador on August 17, of 2006. Progress in a country is obtained by the constant contribution of national inventions or by the licenses of technologies of other countries adopted by such, since they stimulate foreign investment and confirm the words of Pope John Paul II: "another form of property exists, that has no less importance than earth itself; this the Property of the Knowledge and the Technique of knowledge. Much more than the natural resources itself, the wealth of the industrialized nations is based on this type of Property... ".