PCT National Phase Filings

A PCT application is a single patent application which, at the end of the PCT process can be filed in any of the more than 150+ countries that are signatories to the PCT treaty. Generally, the PCT application ends at either 30/31 months from the earliest priority date of an application. Applicants need to file applications at each national or regional office where they seek protection of the invention. An applicant can choose how many and which countries/regions to proceed in, with each application at national or regional level proceeding in the same way as applications filed directly at a national or regional office. However, many patent offices will start examination from the results of the original PCT search, Written Opinon/IPRP, with a number of offices granting applications based upon a favourable written opinion/IPRP. However, some offices, e.g. EPO, USPTO may wish to carry out an additional search as part of the local examination, and depending on where the PCT search and IPRP were prepared, may call for a complete re-examination. The costs associated with the national/regional phase vary substantially between countries, with countries that require the specification to be translated generally representing higher costs for the applicant.