Which of the following does not officially grant patents?

• A. National Patent Office
• B. Regional Patent Office
• C. Patent Cooperation Treaty
• D. None of the above

Answer: (C)

Patents are issued by the authority that has jurisdiction over a country or region. The Patent Cooperation Treaty is an international filing framework that lets an inventor submit a single application to pursue protection in multiple countries, and it provides steps like an international search and optional preliminary examination. It does not itself grant patent rights. The actual patents are granted by national patent offices for each country or by regional patent offices for a group of countries, after examination under their own laws. So the entity that does not officially grant patents is the Patent Cooperation Treaty, since its role is coordination and processing rather than patent grant. The other offices are the ones that issue the patents.