Applying for an international patent PCT

Applying for an International Patent (PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty)

Applicants can simultaneously apply for protection of an invention in multiple countries by filing a single international patent application under the PCT. International applications may be filed at the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland. If an application for the same invention has already been submitted at the national office (not earlier than 12 months before the planned date of the international application), the application must be submitted to the European Patent Office (EPO) or to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (IB WIPO) with a claim of priority over such previously filed national application.

The International Search Authority (the EPO or the Visegrad Patent Institute) chosen by the applicant conducts a search for solutions similar to the subject of the application in international technical and patent-related literature, before drawing up a report specifying whether the solution seems to be new, involves an inventive step, and has industrial applicability. After 18 months, the application is published together with the international search report. The owner of the solution may apply for an international preliminary examination, which is prepared by one of the International Preliminary Examination Authorities.

Regardless of whether such an examination has been carried out or not, after 30 or 31 months the application for a patent under the international procedure is handed over to the national office in order to complete the procedures related to granting patent protection in a relevant territory.