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A patent in other countries is a way of protecting innovation for ambitious authors and promising business

   A patent for invention or utility model has an important feature – it has effect only in the country that issued the patent. Thus, Ukraine's patent will not be valid in Australia, Switzerland, Japan or the United States. And conversely, the patents of Australia, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States are not valid in our country. If you want to patent your invention outside Ukraine, it is advisable to apply for a patent in other countries. You can choose the countries for patenting at your discretion. It is important to understand that there is no universal “world patent” or “international patent”. However, there are regional patents, which are valid in several countries (for example European and Eurasian patents).

   There are several different procedures for applying for a patent in foreign countries as follows:

   In the case of obtaining a patent under the Paris Convention, you can file an application for the foreign patent to any country that ratified the Paris Convention within 12 months from the date of filing application to the Ukrpatent. In this case, it is important to indicate the filing date of the patent application for this invention in Ukraine (to indicate the date of priority). This way of applying for foreign patent rights is beneficial if you need to obtain a patent in one or two more countries.

   If you are interested in applying for a patent in several countries, it is better to file a patent application under the PCT. In this case, an international patent application (PCT application) is filed, which is submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization through the Ukrpatent. Once you have submitted your PCT patent application, you will have 30 months to decide if it is worthwhile to file the patent in individual counties. During this period, you can identify the cost for nationalization of your application, evaluate the feasibility of your invention in different countries, and realize a demand for it in these countries. Then nationalization of the international application starts, that is, it is being considered in those countries that you want to grant you a patent for the invention. The advantage of filing a patent application under the PCT is an opportunity to delay paying costs of obtaining the national patents.

   The feature of the regional patents is their validity in the territory of several countries. Nowadays, the most popular regional patent is the European patent, which is valid in the countries of the European Union. However, it's important to remember that obtaining such a patent is a rather expensive procedure. There is also the Eurasian Patent Convention that grants Eurasian patents, which are valid in the territory of several countries of the former USSR (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Russia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan). Ukraine is not a member of the Eurasian Patent Convention, but this does not rule out an opportunity to obtain such a patent for any applicant from Ukraine.

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