Priority claims for IP rights allow obtaining an earlier priority date for an IP application based on an earlier IP application in another country. For member states of the Paris Convention, Art. 4(1) Paris Convention provides this basic principle:
Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.
Art. 4(E) Paris Convention allows priority claims for designs based on earlier utility model applications and for utility models based on earlier patent applications:
(1) Where an industrial design is filed in a country by virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a utility model, the period of priority shall be the same as that fixed for industrial designs.
(2) Furthermore, it is permissible to file a utility model in a country by virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a patent application, and vice versa. Read more