Pct File Extension

In countries that are signatories to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) the answer is YES PCT applications are consider patent applications. Here a quote from Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) CHAPTER In(INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION AND INTERNATIONAL SEARCH) Article 3 (The International Application ) (1) Applications for the protection of inventions in any of the Contracting States may be filed as international applications under this Treaty. Furthermore here is a quote from the US Patent Office Manual Of Patent Examining Proceedures section 181 ( 181-Basic Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Principles ) CONCEPTS OF THE PCT The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) enables the U.S. applicant to file one application an international application in a standardized format in English in the U.S. Receiving Office (the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) and have that application acknowledged as a regular national or regional filing in as many Contracting States to the PCT as the applicant designates that is names as countries or regions in which patent protection is desired. The filing of an international application will automatically constitute the designation of all contracting countries to the PCT on that filing date. In the same manner the PCT enables foreign applicants to file a PCT international application designating the United States of America in their home language in their home patent office and have the application acknowledged as a regular U.S. national filing. The PCT also provides for the establishment of an international search report and written opinion at 16 months from the priority date and publication of the international application after 18 months from the priority date. Upon payment of national fees and the furnishing of any required translation usually 3 months after the filing of any priority application for the invention or the international filing date if no priority is claimed the application will be subjected to national procedures for granting of patents in each of the designated countries. For any countries remaining whose national laws are notpatible with the 3 month period set forth in PCT Article 22(1) #de363673 the filing of a demand for an international preliminary examination electing such countries within 19 months from the priority date will result in an extension of the period for entering the national stage to 3 months from the priority date. An up-to-date list of such countries may be found on WIPO website ( pct ). See also subsection V. below. A brief description of the basic flow under the PCT is provided in MPEP ua7 1842 #de171994 . The PCT offers an alternative route to filing patent applications directly in the patent offices of those countries which are Contracting States of the PCT. It does not preclude taking advantage of the priority rights and other advantages provided under the Paris Convention and the WTO administered Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement). The PCT provides an additional and optional foreign filing route to patent applicants.

Once you file your original application in Europe you receive the preliminary search report within 7 to 9 months. at the 12 months milestone you decide whether or not to file extensions at European US or PCT (worldwide) level. These extensions in turn warrant prior art searches by the Offices (EPO USPTO etc) which take another 6 to 9 months. At the 3 months milestone your application has alreay been published (typically after 18 months) and you may enter regional phases for your application. If no significant prior art has been opposed to you or if your patent counsel has successfully fought back the objections from the offices you may get your patent granted in specific countries around this 3336 months timeline (in France you may obtain a patent earlier on the mere basis of novelty not inventivity but if your patent is weak the chances of obtaining it outside France are low because at that stage inventivity is a critical success factor). If you encounter serious prior art and must rewrite your applications alter your claims procedure may drag on for years. I have seen a weak patent granted in France in 29 finally delivered in the USA in 216 and at European Level in 218! These are extreme examples but they are

A second provisional can not claim priority to your first filed provisional. The only way to retain the priority date of your first provisional is to file a non-provisional. If you are not ready to invest in the preparation of a formal non-provisional you can file an informal non-provisional with the intent to replace that eventually with a formal continuation-in-part application (as David Cain pointed out). For the informal non-provisional you might be able to benefit from the Extended Missing Parts Pilot Program which effectively provides a 12-month extension to the existing 12-month provisional application period. Specifically it allows applicants to request a twelve-month extension to pay the search fee examination fee any excess claim fees and surcharge for late submission of the search and examination fees in a nonprovisional application. If you are interested in foreign patent rights however this is not a feasible option since your PCT or foreign applications must be filed within one year of the provisional filing date to benefit from that date under the Paris Convention.

A2A. No. Unless (a) your patent application is the same patent application to your invention that you patented in the first country; (b) there is an international treaty between the two countries in which each country promised to honor an initial filing date (called the priority date) of a patent application filed in the other country; (c) your first patent application and your second patent application meet all requirements of the treaty; and (d) your second patent application meets all formalities (e.g. language format claim form and style etc.) for filing a patent application in the second country. Soundsplicated right? In actual practice it not so bad. Let look at an example For example January 1st 217 you file a patent application claiming your improved widget in your home country of Austria-Hungary. However you desire to also protect extensive anticipated sales of your widget in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Your patent attorney advises you that both are signatories to the Paris Convention Summary of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) in which each country (called a contracting state in the Treaty) will recognize a right of priority of a patent filing in another contracting state provided that within a certain period of time (12 months for patents) the applicant applies for protection in any of the other Contracting States . So you have exactly twelve months (due by January 1 218) in which to contact a patent attorney in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick and provide him with your patent application filed in Austria-Hungary pay a fee and instruct him to prepare and file a patent application meeting the formalities of the Patent Office of the Grand Fenwick and file it. (In practice you can have your patent attorney in your home country of Austria-Hungary make these arrangements with an affiliate of theirs in Grand Fenwick which saves you the time and hassle of shopping around for a patent attorney in a foreign country). Provided the attorneys do their job correctly and make the filing date and meet the requirements of the Patent Office of the Grand Fenwick the Duchy of Grand Fenwick is obligated under the Paris Convention to treat your patent the same as that of any national (citizen) and to respect your right of priority by treating your application as one that was filed on January 1 217. Patent Office Duchy of Grand Fenwick. In practice a later treaty called the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) now allows for delays of up to 32 months after the original filing to file patent applications in other countries and includes a search by an International Patent Examiner (for a fee and additional paperwork of course). But that a story for another day. Good night from the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

A person can sell their rights to almost anything. I can legally sell you the Brooklyn Bridge s . However I can sell you my rights to the Brooklyn Bridge. What rights? you ask. I have the right to walk and drive across it. I can sell them to you for your exclusive use. I would then be giving up my right to walk or drive across it. You previously had your own rights to walk or drive across it. Now you would have mine too. That didn cause you to acquire anyone else rights just mine. Consider your question case. I sell you exclusively all my rights in Canada to my US patent 1234567. Great. What have you acquired? Nothing of value. Owning a US patent does not convey a license to do anything in Canada nor a right to restrain anyone from doing anything in Canada. A patent conveys a right to restrain. If the invention is not covered by an actively in-force Canadian patent nobody can restrain anyone else from doing in Canada what is claimed in the patent. Similarly nobody could be prohibited from importing into Canada a product that infringes on the US patent. Also once the invention has been publicly disclosed anywhere nobody else can get a patent on it. (Depending on what procedures the inventor followed the inventor may be able to get patents in additional countries besides the first.) I don know Canadian law but there could be a Canadian law that makes it illegal to import into Canada items that without a license infringe a patent in the country of manufacture. If this infringing product had been made in the USA where it is patented then this hypothetical law would prohibit the importation. If it had been made in China and not patented there also then the importation would not be prohibited.

This is a quick solution to get the gist of it. For actual details look here File Types and File Associations - Windows applications s Also to make it all not by hand this module should do winreg - Windows registry access - Python documentation s First let try to associate .pct extension with source import sys code import os code code try code filename = code code with open(filename r) as f code (()) code code (pause) code except code pass code First we need to create this key Text version Windows Registry Editor Version 5. code code code PerceivedType= code @= code Content Type= code Now we make ProgId named Text version Windows Registry Editor Version 5. code code code @=Pycat File code code code @= code code code code code @= %L code Now when you try to doubleclick random file with .pct extension on Windows 1 on first try OS will ask you to choose and the first option will most likely be Python. Select it and name of the file will be the first argument of . On Windows 7 and before there will be no choose program dialog. On Windows 8 or 8.1 I honestly don know. For more integration options check first above.

Patents expire 2 years after the filing date in Europe. That however is the maximum duration. The patent owners will have to pay annuities to keep the patent in force that is they will have to pay an increasing fee each year to keep the patent in force otherwise the patent or patent application will lapse. Patent applications may lapse also due to other actions or non actions of the owner e.g. not responding to an office action. This is often done intentionally because the owner might have realized that the patent or patent application no longer is worth the cost and effort or that a patent in a certain country does not make sense or it is more cost efficient to keep it in merely a few legislations. That bes particularly important when the patent or patent application bes older and the annuity fees are higher. An SPC is a Supplementary Protection Certificate. It extends the protection of pharmaceuticals or crop protection agents which may only be sold once extensive trials have been made and a marketing authorization has been received. An SPC can extend the protection by five years as a maximum. The total time of extension however is dependent on the time difference between issue date of the patent and the first marketing authorization granted in the EU. These SPC have to be requested at each national patent office and die to different local practices the expiration might be a bit different from country to country despite it should be harmonuzed throughout the EU. Sorry I can not give more detailed info on SPCs I have not done SPC work for more than 15 years

As others have pointed out - an idea is not patentable by itself. You must cross over that line between an idea and invention! Although submitting models and protos are not required doing so can be useful in demonstrating to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that your invention works properly and that it isn a mere idea. The USPTO requires that your invention be described in your application to the level of detail that someone skilled in the technical area of your invention can recreate your invention without undue burden. Thus if you believe you can submit an application that sufficiently describes your product then you can take the chance of going modeless. Even if your idea is patentable and you do not need to submit a proto for your specific invention you still have to think about the sums of money patent registration - and enforcement - requires. For bootstrapping entrepreneurs there are more cost-friendly routes that can provide strong intellectual property (IP) protection. Non-disclosure agreements and trade secret protection can work just as well as costly patent registration especially whenbined with innovation design and speed. Employees board members and advisors should be required to sign agreements requiring them to assign all business-related IP to the startup. You will also want to extend IP protection through agreements with non-employees including vendors. outsourced designers consultants engineers and even customers. I encourage you to visit LawTrades s for further gance on determining the value of your patent as we offer free consultations with skilled patent attorneys. Also please feel free to contact me directly with any concerns you have about registering your patent or protecting your intellectual property. I hope that helps and good luck moving forward!