International patent application (PCT application)

The international patent application system, as its name tells, is merely an application system. It does not lead to an international patent or a global patent but a number of national patents.

The system is based on an international agreement (Patent Cooperation Treaty), which came into force in 1978. About 140 countries have become parties to the treaty by now.

The core idea of the PCT system lies in that it makes it possible to seek patent protection in all contracting states simultaneously by filing one single application. Thus you need not yet know at the end of the priority year in exactly which countries you want or need to obtain a patent. The PCT system allows a period of either 20 or 30 months for consideration from the filing date of the Finnish first application. By that time you may already know how well the invention sells and which are the countries where you will need the patent.

Filing of applications

A PCT application may be filed either via the NBPR or directly with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) in Geneva or with the European Patent Office (EPO). If the application is filed via the NBPR, the office checks that the application meets the formal requirements and then forwards it to the international searching authority. A Finnish applicant may choose either The Finnish Patent Office, the Swedish Patent Office or the European Patent Office as such authority. All subsequent correspondence will take place directly with the international authority.

Application forms, see PCT application form, and fees, see PCT fees.

The application can be made in the English language.

Processing in two phases

The PCT process consists of two phases. The first one is what is called an international search. The applicant is given a search report after roughly three months from the filing date of the PCT application. The report is a list of publications that may affect the grant of a patent and a written opinion about the patentability of the invention.

The second phase is what is called the preliminary examination, in which the examiner gives his or her opinion about the patentability of the invention. The second phase must be asked for separately within 22 months from the Finnish first application (the earliest priority) or within 3 months from the date of transmittal of the search report, whichever period expires later.

Continuation in the designated states

As the system does no result in an international patent, the international phases must be followed by a national phase in the contracting states (in all or only some of them).

If the applicant does not ask for the preliminary examination of patentability, the national phase has to be started after 20 or 21 months from the filing of the first application. If the conducting of an examination is asked for, the national phase has to be entered into after 30 or 31 months from the filing of the first application.

Article 22(1) of the PCT was revised at the end of 2001. The amendment provides an opportunity for the contracting states to permit the entry into the national phase as late as after 30 or 31 months even in the case that the applicant does not ask for the preliminary examination of patentability. A list of countries and the time at which you have to move over to the national phase is found on WIPO web site on the Internet.

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