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A U.S. patent provides protection in the United States and prevents
anyone from "making, using, selling, or offering for
sale" the subject invention. This does not,
however, provide any protection outside of the United States.
Under International Treaty (The Paris Convention), a U.S. patent
provides protection for up to one year throughout most of the
world. An inventor, therefore, has one year from
the first patent filing date (utility or provisional) to file
for patent protection in most foreign countries (6 months for
design patents). There
are two primary methods of securing foreign patent protection:
(1) through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), or (2) by
filing National (or Regional) applications directly into
individual countries in which you are seeking protection.
The Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides protection throughout most
of the world for up to 30 months from the initial patent
filing. The PCT
typically costs relatively less compared to filing National
applications. Therefore,
the PCT is a great way to defer foreign patent costs until an
inventor is better able to afford the filings.
National
applications are filed in individual countries just like the
U.S. application. Each
application requires government fees, foreign agent fees,
translation fees, etc., all of which vary depending upon the
complexity of the invention, length of the patent application,
and the country or countries in which protection is desired. This can, needless to say, become very expensive.
There are some
regions, most notably in Europe, that allow an applicant to
file a single application to cover multiple countries.
This can sometimes considerably reduce the cost of
foreign patent protection, as well as defer other fees for
several years.
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