An international application must be an application for the protection of an invention. The PCT encompasses the filing of applications for patents for inventions, inventors’ certificates, utility certificates, utility models, and various kinds of patents and certificates of addition. An international application thus cannot validly be filed for certain other forms of industrial property rights which fall outside the scope of “inventions”, such as, for example, purely ornamental designs. (PCT Articles 2(i), 2(ii), 3(1); PCT Applicants Guide Vol. I)
