






                         Patent Cooperation Treaty

               The United States is also a party to the Patent
          Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which provides procedures for
          filing patent applications in its member countries. The PCT
          allows an applicant to file one "international application"
          designating member countries in which a patent is sought,
          with the same effect as filing national applications in
          each of those countries. The applicant may then later
          proceed with the filing of separate "national" applications
          in those countries.

