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One international application, thirty months of breathing room, and a single search report before you commit to individual countries.
If you want patent protection in more than one or two countries, the Patent Cooperation Treaty gives you a way to keep your options open without filing everywhere at once. It does not grant an international patent — no such thing exists — but it defers the expensive decisions.
How it works
You file a single PCT application, usually within twelve months of your first national filing. That one application has legal effect in every PCT member state. An International Searching Authority produces a search report and a written opinion on patentability. Then, typically thirty or thirty-one months from your priority date, you enter the national phase in the specific countries you have chosen.
- Months 0–12: first filing, often a national provisional
- Month 12: file the PCT application
- Months 16–18: international search report and written opinion issued
- Month 18: application publishes
- Months 30–31: national phase entry in chosen countries
What you gain
The extra eighteen months between a direct foreign filing deadline and national phase entry is time to assess the invention commercially, raise money, and read the search report before spending on translations and local agents in each country.
The PCT does not make protection cheaper overall. It makes the big spend later and better informed.
When a direct filing is better
If you already know you only want two or three specific countries, filing directly in each under the Paris Convention within twelve months can be faster and cheaper than routing through the PCT. The PCT earns its keep when the list of target countries is long or still undecided.