If you wish to protect your invention overseas you must apply for a patent in each country where patent protection is required.
There are two options for proceeding:
|
- Direct application: Complete patent applications are made within 12 months of the priority date. This option brings forward the substantial filing costs. For example, for an application fee in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe you can expect filing costs alone to be in the order of $50,000-$60,000 for a standard length specification.
|
|
- Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application: Many inventors or companies are not in a position at the 12-month point to afford these costs and they therefore choose to delay the costs by filing a single International PCT Patent Application. The function of the PCT application is essentially to buy time to elect countries in which to proceed. The typical cost for filing a PCT application is $9,000-$12,000. The PCT authorities also perform a patent search and initial examination, with further charges of approximately $2,500-$5000 for dealing fully with the results of this search and examination.
|
|
Please contact one of our listed people on the right for further advice.
|
Click here for our Validating European Patents brochure.
|
