Fish Named Top IP Law Firm in the U.S. in Filings of Patent Cooperation Treaty Applications

Boston, MA, October 19, 2010 - Fish & Richardson has been named the top intellectual property law firm in the United States in Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application filings, according to Managing Intellectual Property's second annual worldwide PCT rankings. Fish filed 734 PCT applications in the United States, far exceeding the second-ranked firm by nearly 100 applications. Fish also was ranked number two worldwide, based on the filings of firms' various offices around the world. This is the second year in a row that Fish received top PCT rankings.

The PCT is an international treaty, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), between more than 125 Paris Convention countries. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in each of a large number of countries by filing a single "international" patent application. Developed in 1970, and most recently modified in 2001, PCT is intended to streamline the patent application process and thus save time and cost for the applicant and patent offices around the world. In an effort to further improve the system, WIPO launched the Patent Prosecution Highway earlier this year to fast track PCT applications between participating countries, thus allowing applicants to obtain patents faster and more efficiently.

Managing Intellectual Property, a leading international magazine for IP owners, compiled data based on details of PCT applications published on the WIPO website, and then ranked firms according to the number of PCT applications filed that were due for national stage entry during 2010. The firms were listed in order of number of applications filed in their jurisdiction and worldwide. Inovia, a global company that coordinates PCT national stage entry for its clients, assisted in compiling and verifying the data. The results are based on applications with a priority date between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, which corresponds to applications due to enter the national phase in 2010.