Foreign-related patents are another way to apply for foreign patents, mainly through domestic agencies or third-party institutions. Generally, the application is submitted to the State Patent Office first (provided that China has joined the corresponding convention alliance with the country you need to apply for), or it can be submitted directly to the third-party institution of the corresponding country.
What are the ways to apply for foreign-related patents?
1, Paris convention approach. According to the provisions of the Paris Convention on priority, any member country can enjoy the priority of 12 months when applying to other member countries after filing an application for a patent for invention or utility model, and the priority of 6 months when applying for a patent for design.
2.PCT method. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization. According to the provisions of PCT, a patent application filed in any PCT member country can be regarded as an application filed in other designated member countries at the same time.
PCT is the abbreviation of Patent Cooperation Treaty, which mainly involves the cooperation and rationality of filing, retrieval and examination of patent applications and the dissemination of technical information contained therein. PCT does not grant "international patents": the task and responsibility of granting patents can still only be undertaken by patent offices of various countries seeking patent protection or institutions exercising their functions and powers. PCT and Paris Convention are not competitive, but actually complementary. In fact, this is a special agreement under the Paris Convention, which is only open to the member countries of the Paris Convention.
3. Apply according to the country (directly apply to foreign countries, no priority is required, and some countries or regions are not members of the Paris Convention and PCT, and can only file patent applications according to the requirements of their own laws. For example, Taiwan Province Province is not a member of PCT, and Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province Province do not support priority. );
4. Apply for European patent authorization (if the applicant intends to apply for a patent in more than three European regions or countries, it will be faster and more economical to adopt this treaty than to apply to each contracting state one by one.