While there is simply no such thing as a "world-wide" patent, the United States is party to several international treaties providing patent-filing reciprocity, within limits, to inventors in the many treaty countries. The treaties generally provide that an inventor who files his or her patent application in a treaty country can subsequently file that application, within one year (in the case of a utility patent application), in another treaty country or, more typically, in the international treaty organization, and have the filing date of the later-filed application relate-back to that of the earlier-filed application. This presents a tremendous legal and financial advantage to inventors around the world.
When filed with an international treaty organization, the international authority can provide international patent search services and, ultimately, can prepare and forward the priority patent documents to the elected member countries or regional patent offices around the world.
The treaties have provided consistent international procedural filing requirements, and have standardized the typical costs associated with the initial stages of the international patent application process. Thus, an inventor may elect to prosecute his or her application in any number of member countries or regional patent offices, and expect a consistent procedure and standardized expenses.
Our patent attorneys can prepare and file international patent applications for our clients pursuant to treaty. Ultimately, however, each application must be examined in the elected member countries or regional patent offices. In that regard, one or more foreign patent attorneys must be associated to prosecute the application when it passes from the international authority to the member countries or regional patent offices. Myers & Kaplan Intellectual Property Law, LLC works reciprocally with an established network of foreign patent counsel, so that our respective clients are assured of skilled and cost effective counsel, wherever in the world they might opt for patent protection.
Acceptable filing languages, costs, and other requirements can vary dramatically, so be sure to discuss your international patent filing requirements with your Myers & Kaplan Intellectual Property Law, LLC patent attorney. He will be able to assist you in determining the best international filing strategy for your particular needs.
We hope that this page addresses some of your questions and will serve as a future reference for some of the services rendered by our Firm. We would be delighted to speak with you at any time should you have additional questions. Again, thank you for your interest and we shall look forward to working with you!