We frequently receive inquiries from inventors who wish to secure global patent protection for their inventions. This desire is based on a logical fear, “While I could patent this in the United States, someone could copy my invention and market it in other countries.”
Patents must be filed individually in each country in which you desire patent protection.
Unfortunately, patents are territorial in nature. Patents only extend to the borders of the country in which they are granted. This is due to a simple fact: Different countries have different laws. As a consequence, every country has its own patent process. In some cases, these processes are at odds with one another. For instance, in the United States a patent carries no requirement of actually manufacturing the patented device (much to the ire of would-be patent-holders who discover that their inventions duplicate old, obscure patents that were never used in a marketed product). In many countries, there is a requirement that the patented item be manufactured in the country within a set period, or the patent will be invalidated.
However, world governments have long recognized that in order for international trade to be practical, some level of cooperation between each country’s patent office is necessary. The first instance of this cooperation occurred in 1883, when representatives of 11 countries signed the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
This treaty, which is still in force and now has 176 contracting member countries, established a process that made it significantly easier for inventors in a signing country to protect their inventions in other member countries.
We’ll explain the process of obtaining patent protection outside the U.S. in a later blog post.