Foreign patent prosecution corresponding to a U.S. patent application is relatively expensive but it depends upon the number of countries in which the protection is desired and whether the native language of those countries is English. There are two alternative routes which may be taken.

Preferable Route:

If it can be determined in which countries it is desirable to obtain foreign patent protection, in good time before one year lapses after the filing of the US patent application, an effort can be made to try and determine the least expensive patent protection filing procedures of: 1) filing in each individual country (which often will be the least expensive depending upon the number of countries selected and depending upon the national language); 2) filing in the EPO plus individual countries (if the desired EPO countries are multiple) ; or, if the countries cannot be determined early on,

Reservation Route:

3) filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application which can reserve for nearly thirty months, after the US filing date, the right to file in up to seventy-six (76) participating countries presently adhering to the PCT, but the expense for doing so is nearly $3000 at the present time. In addition to the PCT prosecution fees, at the subsequent time of selecting the countries in which to prosecute the applications to allowance, the further costs will depend upon the number of countries selected and the translation costs.

CAVEAT

DO NOT RELY ON THE FOLLOWING EXPLANATION OF VERY COMPLICATED LAW FOR TIMING THE FILING OF A FOREIGN PATENT APPLICATION. READ IT AS A WARNING ONLY.

In order to insure the validity of the foreign patent applications, it is necessary to file the parent United States patent application on which the foreign applications will be based before the invention is offered for sale anywhere in the world or before the invention is disclosed in a printed publication of general circulation.