The patent cooperation treaty otherwise known as PCT is an international system of filing patents in various countries legally created in 1970. The convention originally had only 18 contracting states; although all states are not included within it, for example, the glaring exceptions of Argentina and Taiwan come to mind, the treaty’s usefulness has attracted more and more adherents. Thus, in the intervening years the PCT has grown to 148 signatories as of today.
PCT Patent Advantages
A PCT application has a few advantages that make it stand out over a traditional procedure of filing applications in a foreign country. Typically, an inventor or corporate body needs to file in various counties within a year of filing in the home country where an original application has been filed. What this means is that within 12 months of filing an application in the USA, for example, one would have to file in any other country that you would like to file in. Thus, the legal up front costs can be high at a time that a business is just starting up depriving a small concern of needed capital.
In contrast to this, the PCT system provides to dramatically extend the time limit of filing in a foreign country. For most countries using the PCT system you have about 30 months (in most countries) from the earliest priority date to file an application once the PCT application is filed. The slowing down of the patent process in many jurisdictions helps companies examine a foreign market, assess its potential return, form alliances, and formulate on overall strategy for investment of valuable resources.
The international patent application, or PCT App has two primary phases: 1) an international phase and 2) a national or regional phase. The international phase is a pending application filed with a receiving office (RO) of a member state. The second phase is where a party directly requests patent rights be granted using the pendency of the priority dates indicated in the PCT application. It should be understood that the PCT App itself is not a request for a patent right. Rather it is a medium by which a request for patent rights are delayed until the entry of the second phase where regional or national patents are filed.