Patents or utility models are documents that provide protection in any country. For this reason, US patent or utility model attached to the document, but will be under protection in USA. When it is desired to protect the invention in other countries, it is necessary to apply to the patent offices of the desired countries for registration.
How to Apply for a Patent Application Abroad
Basically, three ways of protection can be requested abroad, and you can read about it in details from https://midhudsonnews.com/2020/05/10/how-does-inventhelp-support-new-inventors/.
Classic Patent: Protection should be preferred only if it will be limited to 2-3 countries. Applications are made individually for each country, and the entire patent process (research, investigation) is repeated in each country.
PCT (Patent Cooperation Agreement): It is an important patent application system that should be considered if patent protection is requested in many countries. On behalf of 139 countries that are members of PCT, the international institution ensures that the applicant foresees the patentability of the invention for a period of 30 months from the priority date.
In other words, before entering the national patent application process, which is costly, there is at least one research on the application without any loss of rights due to the priority restriction. Thus, an idea is obtained as to whether the invention is new or not. The applicant may decide whether to continue with the next national patent application process according to the foresight in question as shown on https://vocal.media/journal/innovating-as-a-small-business.
EPC (European Patent Convention): It should be preferred only if protection is considered within Europe (34 Countries). After the research and investigation process is completed, if the invention meets the patentability criteria, it receives a certificate and protection is initiated with the translation provided by the EPC member countries.
