PCT is the abbreviation of PATENTCOOPERATIONTREATY, and it is an international treaty with more than 150 States parties. Through PCT, applicants can apply for patent protection for their inventions in a large number of countries at the same time only by submitting an "international" patent application (instead of submitting patent applications from different countries or regions).
PCT patent application process can be divided into the following six steps:
1. Submit the application
In one language, the applicant submits an international application that meets the requirements of PCT form to the national or regional patent office or WIPO, and pays a set of fees.
2. International search
ISA (one of the major patent offices in the world) searches published patent documents and technical documents ("existing technology") that can affect the patentability of inventions, and puts forward written opinions on the patentability of inventions.
3. International announcement
The contents of the international application will be made public as soon as possible after the earliest application date 18 months expires.
4. Supplementary international search (optional)
At the request of the applicant, the second international retrieval unit searches the public documents that the first international retrieval unit, which mainly searches, failed to retrieve due to the diversity of existing technologies in the fields of language and technology.
5. International preliminary examination (optional)
At the request of the applicant, another patent analysis is conducted by an international retrieval unit, usually for the revised application.
6. National stage
After the PCT procedure is completed, usually 30 months after the earliest filing date of the first priority application, the applicant begins to seek patent authorization directly from the patent office of the country (or region) wishing to obtain a patent.
Compared with applying for a patent overseas through the Paris Convention, PCT can simplify the application procedure, have up to 30 months to choose to enter China, delay the decision-making time, and enable the applicant to invest funds accurately. Therefore, if you want to apply for international patents in one country or several countries, you can consider taking the Paris Convention. If there are many countries applying for international patents, PCT is a better choice. The above is the information about the PCT patent application process. For more information about the PCT patent application process, please consult Intellectual Property!
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