The PCT was formed in 1970 and is available for member nations of the Paris Convention. As of January, 2011, there are 142 member countries to the PCT, including the United States. The PCT allows an inventor to file a single application at a Receiving Office and thereby seek protection in several countries at once.
More about the PCT:
- Once you have filed your patent application in the US, you can "reserve" your rights to file in foreign countries by filing a PCT application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ("USPTO");
- PCT applications are administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO);
- After filing for a US Patent application, you only have one year from the filing date to file a PCT request, otherwise you may lose valuable intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
Advantages of PCT Filing:
- In a PCT application, an inventor can pick the countries in which he or she feels the invention requires protection;
- If an inventor plans to license the invention to a multinational corporation, then the countries where such large corporations operate and sell products would be prime candidates.
Disadvantages of the PCT:
- Not available in several countries;
- Unavailable where the original application was filed more than 1 year earlier;
- Foreign patent filing is expensive and foreign patent rules tend to change throughout time.
