There are many times that you need to disclose information about your inventive concept to third parties such as vendors, contractors and investors. T...
New PCT country: Israel
Israel began a pilot PPH program on August 1, 2012. This is great news for biotech and pharmaceutical patentees, since there is significant pharmaceut...
New PCT Country: Brunei Darussalam
As of February 17, 2012, Brunei (BN) became a Paris Convention country for PCT and Paris Convention patent procedure participation. Cheng-Ning Jong, a...
Should I file a national or regional application for foreign patent protection?
The decision between filing a national application or a regional application involves numerous factors: the number of countries where protection is so...
How do I decide whether to enter the national stage?
During the PCT process, you may find yourself asking questions like: “Should I enter the national stage?” “How do I decide in which countries to...
What countries are PCT states? What are the regional offices? What countries are not PCT states?
It can be confusing trying to determine which countries are PCT contracting states, which aren’t, and which are considered other regional offices. B...
ePCT
As of July 2012, the ePCT application of WIPO provides secure online access to PCT application files. (It is the equivalent of the USPTO public and pr...
Publication of PCT applications
PCT applications publish in the same manner as national or domestic patent applications. There is an internet publication of the application on the WI...
Prior Art for the PCT process
For PCT searches and Written Opinions, prior art includes everything made available to the public by written disclosure anywhere in the world prior to...
What is a Chapter II Demand?
After you receive your International Search Report and Written Opinion, the next step in the PCT process is to consider submitting informal comments, ...