referred to as "the Treaty") on April 27, 1977. It bears the date of April 28, 1977, 
the day on which it was opened for signature. The said Conference also adopted 
Regulations consisting of 15 Rules under the title of "Regulations under the Budapest 
Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the 
Purposes of Patent Procedure" (hereinafter referred to as "the Regulations"). Thev 
are annexed to the Treaty. 
Summary of the Treaty and the Regulations 
7. Substantive Provisions . The main feature of the Treaty is that a Contracting 
State which allows or requires the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of 
patent* procedure must recognize, for such purposes, the deposit of a microorganism 
with any "international depositary authority" (see Article 3 (1) (a) ) , irrespective 
of whether such authority is on or outside the territory of the said State. In 
other words, one deposit, with one international depositary authority, will suffice 
for the purposes of patent procedure before the national patent offices (called 
"industrial property offices" in the Treaty) of all of the Contracting States and 
before any regional patent office (e.g. , the future European Patent Office) if such 
a regional office declares that it recognizes the effects of the Treaty (see 
Article 9(1)). 
8. What the Treaty calls an "international depositary authority" is a scientific 
institution — typically a "culture collection" — which is capable of storing micro- 
organisms. Such an institution acquires the status of "international depositary 
authority" through the furnishing by one of the Contracting States of assurances 
to the Director General of WIPO to the effect that the said institution complies 
and will continue to comply with certain requirements (see Article 6(1)), including, 
in particular, the fact that it will be available, for the purposes of the deposit 
of microorganisms, to any "depositor" (person, firm, etc.), that it will accept 
and store the deposited microorganisms and that it will furnish samples thereof 
to anyone entitled to such samples but to no one else. The said assurances may 
be furnished also by certain intergovernmental industrial property organizations 
(see Article 9 (1) (a) ) ; the future European Patent Organisation could qualify as 
such an organization. 
9. The Regulations contain detailed provisions (see Rule 11) on who is entitled — 
and when — to receive samples of the deposited microorganism. The depositor him- 
self has a right to a sample at any time (see Rule 11.2 (i) ) . He may authorize any 
third party (authority, natural person, legal entity) to ask for a sample and such 
a third party will receive a sample upon producing such an authorization (see 
Rule 11.2(ii)). Any "interested" industrial property office to which the Treaty 
applies may ask for a sample and will receive one; an industrial property office 
will mainly be regarded as "interested" where the microorganism is needed for the 
purposes of patent procedure before the said office (see Rule 11.1). Any other 
party may obtain a sample if, roughly stated, an industrial property office to 
which the Treaty applies certifies that, under the applicable law, such a party 
has the right to a sample of the given microorganism; the elements of the certi- 
fication are provided for in detail to ensure that the maximum extent of caution 
will be exercised by the industrial property office before it issues a certifica- 
tion (see Rule 11.3(a)). An alternative to this certification procedure consists 
* All references in this paper to patents are to be understood as references 
also to inventors' certificates. 
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