A PCT application cannot in itself lead to a granted patent, but provides an opportunity to file national patent applications in a large number of countries at a later date. The benefits of the PCT system are:
- that you as applicant have more time to assess the commercial potentialities of the invention and to identify collaborators and/or sources of finance if desired
- that you can obtain a non-binding assessment of the patentability of the invention.
Euro-PCT
A European patent application may either be filed directly at the European Patent Office, or it may be filed as the European regional phase of a PCT application, a so-called Euro-PCT.
A Euro-PCT can be filed up to 31 months after the filing of the first priority application. If you are prepared to pay a surcharge on the official fees, it may even be filed up to a few months later.
Please contact one of our qualified patent attorneys for more information on PCT applications or fill out this contact form with your enquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Read more about this subject in our brochure What you should know about PCT applications
