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General Information |
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Advantages of PCT Applications The PCT enables a patent applicant to defer significant costs and to keep filing options open for a relatively long time. Although there are exceptions, to preserve patent rights in many foreign countries, without the benefit of the PCT, one must file a patent application in each country of interest within one year of the date of filing an original non-PCT application. Foreign filing programs of this sort can be cumbersome and expensive. Typically, without the PCT, a host of different procedures must be implemented on an urgent basis in a multiplicity of countries. Filing fees, translation costs, search fees and other charges must normally be incurred for each country at or near the time of filing. Many Patent Offices do not examine patent applications to assess the novelty and inventiveness of the subject matter until the application has been on file for well over a year. Accordingly, in the absence of a PCT filing, in order to meet the one-year Paris Convention deadline, the applicant must often decide whether to file foreign patent applications solely on the basis of a preliminary search conducted before the originally filed patent application was prepared. It is therefore a useful convenience to receive information on the potential patentability of the invention during the international phase of a PCT application before having to decide in what individual countries patent protection should be sought. Thus, the ISR and Written Opinion issued in respect of an originating PCT application are usually cost-effective. The applicant may use the information on patentability to assess the viability of pursuing foreign patent protection via national-phase filings. When the national phase is entered, the applicant must prosecute a multiplicity of patent applications (except for the European Patent Convention countries and other countries covered by regional patents, one per country) in accordance with the laws of each designated country in order to obtain a patent in each country elected. Thus, the PCT simplifies the process significantly by enabling the applicant to process a single English-language PCT application for up to thirty months before incurring the cost of filing and processing multiple foreign applications. The PCT provides a useful mechanism for pursuing patent protection in a potentially large number of countries, without sacrificing the priority of the original filing date, while deferring country-by-country filing and prosecution expenses. |
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| Nothing
here written constitutes legal advice. The accuracy of what is written
is not guaranteed. |
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