International patenting of inventions

When filing a PCT Application, the Applicant has the right to indicate the maximum number of countries in which national/regional patents may be obtained, and the priority of the first (basic) patent applications is not lost after 12 months, as in the case with patent applications filed through the national procedure, without filing an International PCT Application.

A preliminary opinion on the possible success or failure of subsequent patenting in individual states or in a group of states can be formed through the “International Preliminary Examination” and “International Preliminary Search” provided by the PCT procedure, which are carried out before the application entering the national/regional phase of patenting in individual states and communities of states.

Once a PCT Application has entered the national or regional phase, many Patent Offices rely on the International Preliminary Search and International Preliminary Examination results obtained during the international phase.

Certain convenience is ensured by a possibility of implementation of amendments into the text of the Patent Application, within the frameworks of a unitary International Phase. Such amendments deal with correction of obvious errors, eliminating misprints and optimizing the text of the PCT Application for its further examination on the national or regional phases.

A PCT application can be filed either on the basis of a national patent application or without such. In the latter case, Russian citizens are required to file a PCT Application with the Russian Patent Office as the Receiving Office.

Withdrawal of an International Application before its publication (within 18 months from the filing date of the priority application) is guaranteed.

From the moment of International Publication by WIPO, the claimed invention is granted provisional legal protection, which allows the Applicant, who subsequently receives a Letters Patent in a designated state, to demand a material compensation from persons who started using his invention (or a Utility Model) after official publication for the corresponding period of use of the claimed solution in the territory of a respective state, if permitted by the laws thereof. The results of the International Preliminary Search are published separately or together with the PCT application and are available for public review on the WIPO website www.wipo.org.

In order to obtain a final allowance decision, i.e., the possibility of granting legal protection to a technical solution upon completion of the PCT International Phase, the Applicant must enter the so-called "National Phase" of patenting in Member-States of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, designated at his choice. The period for entering the National Phase is determined by the legislation of each particular state and, as a general rule, lasts 30 or 31 months from the priority date. After the expiration of the 30-31 month period, the Patent Office of the relevant state has the right to reject the application.

Once a PCT Application has entered the National/regional Phase in a designated state (or group of states), the relevant Patent Office conducts examination in accordance with the applicable law and, upon determining patentability of the claimed invention, issues a decision on patent grant.