Patent is the exclusive right granted to an applicant for preventing others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the invention without applicant’s consent. However, patent rights are territorial in nature and only applicable in the country or region in which a patent has been filed and granted, in accordance with the law of that country or region.
Therefore, in order to protect your invention in multiple countries you have a few options:
1) PCT International Application (PCT Route)
The PCT International application is required to be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of priority application. Through PCT route, the applicant gets an international filing date in all the designated countries, conferring the late entry (up to 31 months) to the national offices without affecting the priority date.
Once the International Application is filed, the applicant gets a time period of 30/31 months from the date of priority to enter National Phase in different signatory countries.
2) Convention Application (Direct or Paris route)
There are some countries which are not signatory to PCT but are bound by the Paris Convention. An applicant may file patent application (convention application) in those countries within 12 months from the date of earliest priority.
For more information on Patent International IP Law , please write to us at info@ssrana.com
