Filing Abroad

Patents, utility models, trademarks and designs exist and expire country by country, so they must be obtained separately in each country. This is known as the principle of territoriality. To extend protection to another country, you need to apply for rights in that country. For patents, there are two main routes: the PCT route and direct national filings.

A PCT application uses an international treaty to file a single application. You file one PCT application with the patent office of your country of nationality or residence (the receiving office), and within a set period you can enter the national phase in the countries where you want protection (designated or elected states). The international filing date of the PCT application is recognized as the filing date in those countries. A direct national filing, the traditional route, means filing separately in every country where you want a patent; this is also called the Paris Convention route. INCUBE maintains working relationships with leading law and patent firms in the United States, Japan, Europe, China and elsewhere, and provides high-quality foreign filing services through this network.

We recommend the route that best fits your filing strategy. Because foreign filings are costly, we carry out an additional prior art search before filing to build a stable foundation for your rights abroad, and we draw on our experience with various national procedures to provide the best solution for protection overseas.