What is the effect of an international patent application?

What is the effect of an international patent application?

PCT National Phase Entry in Vietnam

In general terms, your international patent application, provided that it complies with the minimum requirements for obtaining an international filing date, has the effect of a national patent application (and certain regional patent applications) in or for all PCT Contracting States. Moreover, if you comply with certain formal requirements set out in the Treaty and Regulations, which are binding on all of the PCT Contracting States, subsequent adaptation to varying national (or regional) formal requirements (and the cost associated therewith) will not be necessary.

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Brief Reminder of Time Schedule to Apply PCT Application into Vietnam

According to Vietnam Law on Intellectual property, a PCT applicant who would like to go into Vietnamese phase after the end of PCT procedures need to submit the application within the following duration:

Vietnam patent

If an international application designates Vietnam, the National Office of Intellectual Property in Vietnam (NOIP) is the designated office. In this case, in order to enter the national phase, the applicant shall submit, within 31 months from the date of priority, to the NOIP the following:

-Written declaration requesting invention registration, made according to a set form;

-Copy of the international application (if the applicant requests the entry into the national phase before the date of publication of the international publication);

-Vietnamese translation of the international application: The description, consisting of a description section, protection request, annotations for drawings and abstract (the published copy or initially filed original application, if the application has not yet been published, and modified copy and explanation of modified contents, if the international application has been modified under Article 19 of Patent Cooperation Treaty;

-National charges and fees.

If an international application elects Vietnam, the NOIP is the elected office. In this case, if the election of Vietnam is made within 19 months from the date of priority, in order to enter the national phase, the applicant shall submit, within 31 months from the date of priority, to the NOIP the following documents:

-Written declaration request;

-Sting invention registration, made according to a set form;

-Vietnamese translation of the international application: The description, consisting of a description section, protection request, annotations for drawings and abstract (the published copy or initially filed original application, if the application has not yet been published, and modified copy and explanation of modified contents, if the international application has been modified under Article 19 and/or Article 34(2)(b) of the Treaty);

-Vietnamese translations of annexes to the international preliminary examination report (when substantive examination of the application is requested);

-National charges and fees.

After having submitted the application, the time  when the processing of an international application designating or electing Vietnam in the national phase starts is the first day of the thirty second month from the date of priority if the applicant files no written request for entry into the national phase earlier than the above time limits. The international application shall be put to formality examination and substantive examination according to the procedures applicable to ordinary invention registration applications. If the applicant requests in writing earlier examination of his/her application and pay the prescribed charge, the international application shall be examined earlier than the time limit specified above in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 3(2) of the Treaty.

Please be noted that in addition to the cases where an international application is considered withdrawn specified in the Treaty and the Regulation on implementation of the Treaty, an international application designating or electing Vietnam shall be considered withdrawn if the national fees are not paid to the NOIP or there is no Vietnamese translation upon the expiration of the set time limit.

It is important to adhere to the deadline and patent attorney in Vietnam of ANT Lawyers always follow up with the Client to remind on the schedule to follow when submitting for PCT application in Vietnam.

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Overview of PCT System for Invention Protection Abroad

PCT System is a tool which helps protecting Inventions abroad and based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). PCT is international treaty with more than 150 Contracting States. This system makes it possible for patent owner to protect theirs invention simultaneously in a large number of country by filing only one international application instead of national or regional submitting, normally through the support of IP attorney.

Vietnam patent

However, the patent is granted under the control of national or regional patent offices via national phase. The application when filing by this system is called PCT application. The general PCT procedures includes: filing application; international search; international publication; supplementary international search (optional); international preliminary examination (optional); national phase.

PCT is widely used by individuals and different organizations. Patent owner is entitled to file PCT application if they are a national or resident of a PCT Contracting States. If there are several applicants named in the international application, only one of them needs to comply with this requirement. Also, the PCT application can be filed, in most case, with national patent offices or directly with WIPO if pursuant to national law.

One of the most important matters which applicant notice is the time schedule when filing PCT application. Normally, applicant will have up to 18 months from the time they file their international patent application (or usually 30 months from the filing date of the initial patent application of which they claim priority) before they enter national phase with the separate procedures of each national patent offices. Be noted that you always can ask for an early entry into the national phase without waiting for the expiration of 30 months.

During the time period of PCT process, the PCT application will be gone through an international search which is the main search beside supplementary international search, by International Searching Authorities which may be either a national office or an intergovernmental organization, such as the International Patent Institute, whose tasks include the establishing of documentary search reports on prior art with respect to inventions which are the subject of applications, with the result of an international search report. The report enable applicant to evaluate the chances of obtaining patents in national phase. After that, the application will be published or this step called International publication. WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) publishes the international application shortly after the expiration of 18 months from the priority date together with the international search report on PATENTSCOPE. After the international publication, applicant can also request for a second evaluation of the potential patentability of the invention which is International preliminary examination. This examination allows applicant to amend the international application before entering the national phase. At the end of the procedure, an international preliminary report on patentability will be issued. This report give the opinion on the compliance with the international patentability criteria of each of the claims which have been searched and an even stronger basis on which to evaluate the chances of obtaining patents.

Finally, you may decide to push your application go further when proceeding with national phase. From that time, the procedures would comply with the national where it is elected or designated.

For PCT registration in Vietnam, the patent attorney in Vietnam at ANT Lawyer will be of help for advisory, and filing with National Office of Intellectual Property in Vietnam.

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Brief Reminder of Time Schedule to Apply PCT Application into Vietnam

According to Vietnam Law on Intellectual property, a PCT applicant who would like to go into Vietnamese phase after the end of PCT procedures need to submit the application within the following duration:

Vietnam patent 

If an international application designates Vietnam, the National Office of Intellectual Property in Vietnam (NOIP) is the designated office. In this case, in order to enter the national phase, the applicant shall submit, within 31 months from the date of priority, to the NOIP the following:

-Written declaration requesting invention registration, made according to a set form;

-Copy of the international application (if the applicant requests the entry into the national phase before the date of publication of the international publication);

-Vietnamese translation of the international application: The description, consisting of a description section, protection request, annotations for drawings and abstract (the published copy or initially filed original application, if the application has not yet been published, and modified copy and explanation of modified contents, if the international application has been modified underArticle 19 of Patent Cooperation Treaty;

-National charges and fees.

If an international application elects Vietnam, the NOIP is the elected office. In this case, if the election of Vietnam is made within 19 months from the date of priority, in order to enter the national phase, the applicant shall submit, within 31 months from the date of priority, to the NOIP the following documents:

-Written declaration request;

-sting invention registration, made according to a set form;

-Vietnamese translation of the international application: The description, consisting of a description section, protection request, annotations for drawings and abstract (the published copy or initially filed original application, if the application has not yet been published, and modified copy and explanation of modified contents, if the international application has been modified under Article 19 and/or Article 34(2)(b) of the Treaty);

-Vietnamese translations of annexes to the international preliminary examination report (when substantive examination of the application is requested);

-National charges and fees.

After having submitted the application, the time  when the processing of an international application designating or electing Vietnam in the national phase starts is the first day of the thirty second month from the date of priority if the applicant files no written request for entry into the national phase earlier than the above time limits. The international application shall be put to formality examination and substantive examination according to the procedures applicable to ordinary invention registration applications.  If the applicant requests in writing earlier examination of his/her application and pay the prescribed charge, the international application shall be examined earlier than the time limit specified above in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 3(2) of the Treaty.

Please be noted that in addition to the cases where an international application is considered withdrawn specified in the Treaty and the Regulation on implementation of the Treaty, an international application designating or electing Vietnam shall be considered withdrawn if the national fees are not paid to the NOIP or there is no Vietnamese translation upon the expiration of the set time limit.

It is important to adhere to the deadline and patent attorney of ANT Lawyers always follow up with the Client to remind on the schedule to follow when submitting for PCT application in Vietnam.

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What is the most elegant patent application?

I associate the word "elegant" with solutions to problems that are well-defined. With that point of view, the word does not even apply to a patent application. That is, "elegance" is not even a goal when preparing a patent application.

Patent Law Firm in Vietnam

Basically, writing a patent application is like creating software, within a budget (explicitly stated or implicit) that is going to be released into the wild for maybe 20 years, with no opportunity to fix it after it has been released.

Actually, writing a patent application is a little more difficult than that. It's more like creating the software and also writing a description of it. No matter what the software functionally can do, it is limited by its description, so you want to make the description as broad as possible. On the other hand, the description can be attacked if it says the software does more than it actually is capable of doing, so you don't want to make the description too broad.

One of the first tasks is to try to anticipate all the problems that might arise over the next 20 years or so, which is already very challenging. Then, of course, you have to try to address those problems as best you can.

Therefore, it is much more important to make a patent application as strong and robust as possible, given the limited resources available, than it is to make it elegant.

That said, as with pretty much any job, it is possible to come up with clever or even out-of-the-box solutions to certain sub-problems within the overall job. However, those solutions, while satisfying to the patent attorney, are almost always invisible to others.

I have had litigators who were enforcing patents I drafted and prosecuted, compliment me on the quality of the patent application, but it is rare that anyone else would have sufficient expertise and also an opportunity to examine a patent application closely enough to notice how good, or bad, it is.

ANT Lawyers - A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

Source: Quora

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