The substantive provisions of the Convention fall into three main categories: national treatment, priority right and common rules.

[1] According to Articles 2 and 3 of this treaty, juristic and natural persons who are either national of or domiciled in a state party to the Convention shall, as regards the protection of industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union, the advantages that their respective laws grant to nationals.

[citation needed] Article 11(1) of the Paris Convention requires that the Countries of the Union "grant temporary protection to patentable inventions, utility models, industrial designs, and trademarks, in respect of goods exhibited at official or officially recognized international exhibitions held in the territory of any of them".

[citation needed] After a diplomatic conference in Paris in 1880, the convention was signed on 20 March 1883 by 11 countries: Belgium, Brazil, France, Guatemala, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, El Salvador, Kingdom of Serbia,[6] Spain and Switzerland.

[7] The Paris Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)[7] based in Geneva, Switzerland.