Many jurisdictions, including Canada and the United States, allow applicants who file patent applications in another country/region to claim the benefit of the earliest filing date of this application as the filing date of subsequent patent applications, as long as the patent application filed within 12 months of the earliest patent application (within 6 months of the design patent) has the same theme as the previous application. In most cases, it is best to ask for a priority date, because this will limit the ability of the patent office to reject applications based on any technology filed and/or published after the priority date.