We were trying to file a patent, but unfortunately delayed the submission of the disclosure. Now the paper is accepted by the conference, not yet published. However, we uploaded the paper in advanced to arxiv.org which is public domain.
Is there any problems to file our disclosure now? We are in an urgent situation and need to file the patent on behalf of our company.
I'm in the US.
In the US, you have a 1 year grace period from the time of public disclosure to the deadline for filing the patent application. This can lead to a US patent, which can be used to sue anyone infringing the patent within the US.
However, most foreign countries do not offer this grace period, and so the possibility of protection in these countries for the matter disclosed in the arxiv publication has been lost.
