General information on applying for a patent abroad

A patent granted in Finland only protects the invention in Finland. That is sufficient if there are markets for the invention only in Finland. In most cases, however, an invention might sell also elsewhere, such as in Europe and maybe even in more distant countries. Patenting would then have to be extended outside the Finnish borders.

The scope of patenting depends on the nature of the business and the financial resources. Overall, it can be said that patenting abroad is expensive. The patenting strategy is worth while a thorough consideration.

You need not file your patent applications in foreign countries on the same day as they are filed in Finland, but you cannot leave the filing until you have the Finnish patent in your hand. Then, it is too late. With the Finnish patent, the invention has become available to the public and has lost its novelty.

It is advisable to file the foreign applications within a year from the filing date of the Finnish application. In that case you can make use of priority. It is possible to file the applications even after that, within the next six months, provided that the invention has not yet been made available to the public, but then it is no longer possible to make use of the priority right. When 18 months have passed from the filing date of the Finnish first application, it is no longer worth while to file the application abroad. The first application has then become available to the public, unless it has been withdrawn before that.

There is no such thing as a world-wide patent, so you cannot obtain a patent for the whole world by filing one single application. The application process can, however, be begun by a single application – an international application, i.e. a PCT application. If the market is in Europe, you can file for a European patent. If your market is merely for instance in the Nordic countries, the most favourable solution in the economic sense might be to file a national application in each of those countries.