For example, if I apply for a patent in U.S. will my rights over the intellectual property be held only in the U.S. or I could also claim my rights over an IP in some other nation, like India? Also, do I have to apply for patents in individual nations?
asked Oct 2, 2017 at 2:41
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Patent law is no different from any other. It applies in the jurisdictions where authority is held by the lawmaker.– user4657Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 2:51
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1There are treaties (IIRC the Berne Treaty) governing how one can obtain global protection based upon a patent in one country. So, it can be done, but I personally am not familiar with that area of law.– ohwillekeCommented Oct 3, 2017 at 22:55
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Very Incorrect - The Berne Convention, for copyrights and the Hague System for design protection have no parallel in the patent world.– George WhiteCommented Mar 6, 2018 at 23:21
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@Nij Not exactly; lawmakers vested some of their power into international treaties like the UPC which allows a total of 30-ish months for national stage patent prosecution in the jurisdictions of the participating States. Normally, you’d have, I think, like 12 months to file for foreign patents from the date of issue. George White should be able to correct if I miss something here– kisspuskaCommented Aug 27, 2021 at 0:59
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.. which is exactly what I said, and what George said, already. Why bother replying to a comment from two years ago, adding nothing helpful.– user4657Commented Aug 27, 2021 at 2:57
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2 Answers
IP rights are territorial in nature. If patent is filed in US, then rights associated with the patent can be enforced only in US. In case your wish to enforce rights in other countries, you must file application in your countries of interest.
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2If India had a law to automatically respect US payments, then you would have patent protection in India as well. This is very, very unlikely to be the case. Commented Oct 4, 2017 at 20:44
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It is not the case. Other than odd cases like Hong Kong everyplace has its own patent system. There are regional schemes like the EPO to expedite getting patents among cooperating states. Commented Aug 27, 2021 at 0:14
It is a considerable practice to file a PCT application instead of a national patent application as it allows considerable extra time and a more streamlined process to nationalize the patents in party States.
It is also expected that the Unitary Patent PAP-Protocol, a provisional phase will be up and running some time next June as Germany cleared up some constitutional issues and 17-ish Member States’ EU patent will also be possible with a single filing requiring no additional Member State filing.
It is probably going to be a considerable avenue to pursue that one files PCT, then files a national stage U.S. patent and a Unitary Patent for (most of) the EU.
All EU Member States, except for Croatia and Bulgaria, are signatories to the Unitary Patent Convention, and other than the Member States of Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Romania and Slovakia all other Member States provided their presidential or royal assent. It still awaits ratification in France, Germany and Italy to come into force, however.
Another unitary patent convention is also in force for curiosity between Lichtenstein and Switzerland — obtaining a patent in one will be a patent in the other as well.
