Filing strategy

Get the biggest patent benefit within your budget!

Which country should I apply for?

Choosing the country based on the marketing scope;
Choosing the country based on the manufacturing area;
Choosing the country based on rival's distribution map;
Choosing the country based on the resource and development location.

I don’t have enough money, how can I apply for patent in several countries?

Applying before lost novelty;
Claiming conventional priority within 12 months(or 6months for design);
Taking the advantage of applying for Patent Organization.

You can get more benefits if you apply for your patent applications separately. For example, you can have more time to value the market and re-exam the necessary countries for filing patents. You can use your budget more efficiently.

Priority

Convention right of Priority

In patent and industrial design rights, a priority right or right of priority is a time-limited right, triggered by the first filing of an application for a patent or an industrial design respectively. The priority right belongs to the applicant or his successor in title and allows him to file a subsequent application in another country for the same invention or design and benefit, for this subsequent application, from the date of filing of the first application for the examination of certain requirements. When filing the subsequent application, the applicant must "claim the priority" of the first application in order to make use of the right of priority. The period of priority, i.e. the period during which the priority right exists, is usually 6 months for industrial designs and 12 months for patents and utility models.

EX：
A Taiwanese Patent application was on 1/1/2010. The period of claiming priority is starting from 1/2/2010 to 1/1/2011. The person then wants to file a Japanese patent application on 10/1/2010.

How to claim priority benefit

The person can claim the priority of the earliest Taiwanese Patent application, which filed on 1/1/2010, upon filing Japanese patent application. And the date for examining the novelty and inventive step requirements in Japan will be 1/1/2010(priority date), not 10/1/2010(actual filing date).

The advantage of claiming priority right

When a priority is validly claimed, the date of filing of the first application, called the "priority date", is considered to be the "effective date of filing" for the examination of novelty and inventive step or non-obviousness for the subsequent application claiming the priority of the first application. Whenever the first application is granted or the product/technical feature of it is disclosed or not, when the priority right is validly claimed, it won't affect the validation of filing the subsequent application. To allow the applicant having enough time to make a decision regarding where the patent application should be filed during the time-limited of the priority right.