An agreement known as the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) allows a US patent applicant to file an international patent application with the World Intellectual Property Council (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland within 12 months of the first filed application and obtain the priority date in all the member countries of the PCT if the corresponding foreign application is filed within a period of approximately 30 months (time limit varies depending on the country of filing) from the first filed application. If the patent applicant does not file for a PCT application within 12 months of the priority date of the patent application, the patent applicant must apply for a patent in each of the foreign country within 12 months of the priority date of the first filed patent application under the Paris Convention.

The approximately 30 month period gives the patent applicant time to evaluate the commercial viability of the invention in the foreign country where he wishes to file the patent application. Filing a PCT application allows the applicant to defer the filing of counterpart foreign patent applications (and, therefore defer the high filing costs involved in such filings) by up to 30 months from the first filed patent application.

About 96 countries including virtually every industrialized country (notable exceptions being Taiwan, Pakistan) are members of PCT, WIPO.

About 96 countries including virtually all industrialized countries (notable exceptions being Taiwan, Pakistan) are members of WIPO.

Patent rights are territorial, i.e., patent rights accrue only in the country where the patent application is filed. For example, if you want patent protection in Korea, China, Canada and Germany, you have to file a patent application in the patent office of each of these countries. However, an applicant can get patent protection in all the 32 European Community (EC) countries by the filing of only one (1) patent application with the European Patent Office, Munich, Germany.

The filing procedure that applicants normally follow to file corresponding foreign patent application is:

First, file the patent application in any country (typically the country in which the applicant is domiciled)     Second, file a PCT application with WIPO within 12 months of the first filed application     Third, file counterpart foreign applications in the PCT member countries in which you (the applicant) wish to obtain patent protection within 30 months from the first filed patent application.

The PCT application filing fee for a PCT application is approximately $1900 (payable to WIPO). In addition, IP Legal Services charges a professional fee of $1000 for filing the PCT application, docketing, and forwarding all PCT papers to our clients.

For more information on the PCT visit:

Corresponding patent filed in foreign countries have to comply with the patent rules and regulations of that foreign country. For example, patent laws of some countries require that the invention cannot be publicly disclosed before the patent application filing date.

IP Legal Services is not responsible for the work or product of any foreign firm through whom we file foreign applications and will not accept responsibility for any negligence or transgression on the part of any foreign firm even if recommended by IP Legal Services.