An international patent application, also referred to as a 'Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application', is a single patent application which allows the applicant to continue a patent procedure in up to 153 jurisdictions to get patent protection for their invention.
It is advantageous for applicants to file such as single patent application and to use it as a starting point for a patent procedure in any PCT member state (today, 153 countries).
It is a further advantage of such an international patent application that the applicant has 30 or 31 months (depending on the country) - thus in general two-and-a half years - to decide in which of the 153 countries it wishes to obtain patent protection for its invention by entering the patent application in each of the desired countries. Continue Reading