Patenting in Europe and PPA

[ernest]

Hello,

I am from Slovenia – Europe and I intend to fill for PPA in U.S. There is following paragraph in the book I am reading:

”If you publish, publicly use, sell or offer to sell your invention after filing a provisional patent application or regular patent application in the U.S., you can file for a foreign patent within 12 months of the filing date in countries that belong to the Paris Convention.”

For example, I fill for PPA and than publicly present and sell my invention all over the world, will I still be able to fill for a patent in Europe within one year after filling PPA? Even if I am not U.S. citizen?

Thank you in advance,
Ernest Dras

Country - SloveniaWhat is the name of your state?

 

[divgradcurl]

Hello,

I am from Slovenia – Europe and I intend to fill for PPA in U.S. There is following paragraph in the book I am reading:

”If you publish, publicly use, sell or offer to sell your invention after filing a provisional patent application or regular patent application in the U.S., you can file for a foreign patent within 12 months of the filing date in countries that belong to the Paris Convention.”

For example, I fill for PPA and than publicly present and sell my invention all over the world, will I still be able to fill for a patent in Europe within one year after filling PPA? Even if I am not U.S. citizen?

Thank you in advance,
Ernest Dras

Country - SloveniaWhat is the name of your state?

Yes and no. If you file a provisional in the U.S., you can file a PCT (patent cooperation treaty) application claiming priority back to the U.S. provisional filing date, and file a PCT application in the EPO or wherever. However, I do not believe it is possible to directly file a patent application in Europe based on a U.S. provisional application; my understanding is that it has to be done via a U.S. PCT application.

This is a tricky area, because although the U.S. has essentially a 12-month "grace period" -- you can file a provisional or nonprovisional application within 12 months of the first public disclosure of an invention and still obtain a patent -- Europe (and most other places) has an "absolute novelty" requirement, which means ANY public use prior to filing the application bars issue of a patent. Because of this, you might be well-served to talk with someone who understands both U.S. and European patent law before any public disclosure of your patent -- there are likely patent agents in Europe (maybe in Germany around the EPO) with such knowledge that can help you out, or you can contact an American patent attorney or patent agent to help you through the process.

As far as your citizenship is concerned, basically anyone can file for a patent in the U.S. Again, since you are not a U.S. national, there may be some issues regarding trying to get around the public disclosure rules by filing first in the U.S., but it should be allowable, I'm just not up on the current PCT rules right now...