Introduction
It is protecting your brain in our world countries today of our modern age globalization is always never an issue ever to be addressed lightly. With brains and extra efforts always brain-storming with new innovations, it being your line patented worldwide in every nook and cranny is the world’s state-of-the-art technology. Be start-up company, corporate company, or individual businessperson, your product patented globally in foreign nations in numerous others will make your intellectual property never surpass anywhere in the market.
•Why It Is Important to Protect Your Invention Globally?
As an inventor of a patent, your brain has to struggle hard for it so that no one else would produce or use it without your consent. Here patents come into play. Patent is statutory reward to an inventor which gives the inventor exclusive right of use, selling, and production of an invention for a few years—generally 20 years.
But in case you are selling your business or your invention somewhere in all the world. State patent office’s issue patents, and your protection in your patent would then become local in the majority of the cases to your state in which you applied. If selling through your invention to many countries or your selling is what you can anticipate, then you would require patent protection for each one.
•Patent rights everywhere in every country are required because:
Anti-Piracy: Otherwise, your business will get pirated somewhere else in other countries by other businesses of other countries, and you will be placed in an embarrassing situation somewhere else in a foreign country from where you actually belong.
Exporting: Exporting your company, patenting rights in the remainder of your home nation is what indicates that you possess exclusive right over your product.
Licensing: Patents are gold in worth. You may license your invention to multi-nationals under offshore protection and earn revenues.
Market Advantage: Offshore protection signals your competitors and consumers that your invention is patented under law and legally protected.
•How to Protect Your Invention across Borders
Describing that, as now we have a thought that we need to buy protection of the patent in the foreign nation, let us do it and list down the manner in which one would like protection for your invention foreign. There are certain methods through which one would like to have your invention foreign protected depending upon the foreign nation, type of invention, and company organization.
- The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) will probably be the most cost-effective and most widely used tool of international protection of your invention. PCT is a multilateral treaty governed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under which you can file an international patent application which could be utilized to claim rights in more than 150 states.
The PCT procedure functions as follows briefly:
– Step 1: File a PCT Application: You then file a single international filing with your home country or regional patent office (the “receiving office”). Within 12 months of the date of filing of your original patent application filing that you had originally filed (the “priority application”), you need to file a PCT filing. Your home-country filing could be one you had already filed.
– Step 2: International Search step: Once you have filed your PCT application, WIPO will conduct an international search of a patent in order to determine if your inventive step and novelty of your invention is established and whether or not prior art exists for your invention. The search would also be informational to you along with patent offices of the nations where you would like protection.
– Step 3: International Examination: No international examination. It is a general overview of your application and tells you whether your invention is patentable in nations where you will sell it.
– Step 4: National Phase Entry: Once you have included your international search, and where relevant, examination, you enter the national phase of a nation or region to which you add it one at a time. Your application with each of a nation’s patent offices is submitted, and each nation’s requirement of patentability. Your application will be searched and/or examined by national patent offices and will decide when and whether or not to grant a patent.
•Benefits of the PCT System:
– You pay one filing fee in one language and are shielded in numerous countries.
– You have additional time (up to 30 or 31 months from filing date priority) wherein you can choose where you desire your protection, and it is easy where firms take a bit more time to finalize their foreign arrangements.
– It is time-saving and cheaper compared to filing separate applications in most countries individually.
Pros of PCT Method:
– PCT is easy to file but won’t result in a world patent. You’ll still file in local or national offices and pay extra fees nonetheless.
– PCT filing will be faster than if you had filed separate patents.
Regional Patent Systems
The second way of obtaining international patent protection is through the use of regional patent systems. These allow you to file once and enjoy protection across a cluster of countries within a specific geographic location.
Examples of regional patent systems most commonly used include:
- The European Patent Office (EPO): Petitioners in the case at the EPO file one patent application and request to be granted a patent to as many as 44 members of the European Union or otherwise affiliated with the European Union. The EPO will grant your application prior to every independent country member patent grant.
- African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO): You can submit a single application for protection in up to 20 ARIPO member states in Africa.
- Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO): EAPO provides a regional patent system for one East European and Central Asian nation.
Benefits of Regional Patents:
– You can submit a single application and incur less expense compared to submitting separate applications in each state.
– The systems provide you with more protection in a region.
Regional Payments benefits:
– Regional-level patent protection is available only to you in member states, and thus you will need to make filings of your own for non-member states in other regions of the area as well.
– Even once your patent has issued, at times you would need to pay independent validation fees nation by nation in the region.
Direct National Patent Filings
If you prefer to hold ownership of your patent filings or must file in all nations with non-PCT or regional system coverage areas, you can file directly before patent offices in nations in which protection is required.
– You can choose countries where protection is required based on your business strategy.
– National patent offices would be maintaining national policy and national legislations, which at times would be successful if the invention itself is home-close requirements.
Weaknesses in National Filing:
– You might be losing cost and time spent on filing in individual countries.
– You’ll be conducting research work in legislations and patent law of individual countries, which would take time.
Appointment of Patent Attorney or Agent
It’s one where it’s not so easy to have your invention patented in the others and it’s a lot of patent law expertise and jurisdictional expertise that gets to play with. You’d want to have a patent attorney or a patent agent with you to file in most of the others. They’ll help you figure out what the law is, walk you through filing the process, and take care of your invention.
•What to Do Next in Order to Get Patent Protection Elsewhere Other Than Your Home Country
- Screen Your Markets: Choose the markets where you intend to sell or distribute your invention. Look around where your primary customers are, where it is competitive and where it is made.
- File First in Your Home Country: Filing first in your home country is where you’re going to first file your application in hopes of obtaining a home country filing and thereby setting your priority date.
- Make the corresponding national provision, if so required: Patting in most of the countries can be made easier if you file in the form of the PCT.
- National Phase Entry: Filing the national patent system or PCT nationally, you are already in the national phase in all countries where you would like to be protected. Use local patent lawyers for interviews.
- Patent Patrol and Enforcement: After being patented, your patent owner rights must be affirmatively enforced in all countries where you are patrolling and not taking any likely infringements.
Conclusion
Patent protection globally is ideal for any entrepreneur or inventor to venture out there and protect his or her new invention. Regardless of your PCT path, regional patent system, or your national filings, knowing how to navigate the patent law maze and global protection can make you a number one champion in protecting your invention globally.
With intelligence and appropriate tools under your belt, you will be able to safeguard your invention worldwide.
Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1.How much will I cost to protect my invention around the world?
International protection of your invention will also vary in cost depending on how many countries you are in, what kind of patent system they have, and how complex your invention is. You would usually spend between $10,000 and $50,000 or more for international protection.
Q2.Can I file an international patent directly?
No, not world patent; you get protection in each country or region independently under PCT, regional patent offices, or national patent systems.
Q3.International patent protection how long does it last?
The normal patent protection time is 20 years from filing. It is country by country or region by region.
Q4.Is having PCT usage equivalent to holding a world patent?
No, PCT application filing does permit filing in most countries but never permits you to get a world patent. You always need to file separately at country offices for independent protection.
Q5.Do I patent worldwide?
Yes, you can make an overseas filing of your patent in any place in the world where there is a patent office and intellectual property is state-controlled. There can be special legislation or restriction in some countries while making an overseas filing.
Q6.What if my patent is infringed abroad?
In case you have your patent infringed overseas, you’ll enforce your patent right in the courts of a foreign nation. This is accomplished by suit or cease and desist letter.