Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets

International Patent Protection

Patents granted by the PTO have effect only in the United States. To protect an invention in other countries, an inventor must obtain a patent in those countries, which often impose a patchwork quilt of laws, fees, and processes. There are three fairly expeditious methods by which U.S. inventors can pursue patent protection in other countries: by using the benefits of the Paris Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the European Patent Organization.

Paris Convention Priority

Chapter 4 discussed the fact that under the Paris Convention, a trademark applicant in the United States or other Paris Convention country has six months after filing a trademark application in another member nation to capture the earlier ...