Yes, a U.S. provisional patent application is recognized by most international countries. You can file a patent application in most foreign countries and that foreign patent application can use the filing date of your U.S. provisional patent application. However, you must file the foreign patent application within 12 months of when you filed the U.S. provisional patent application. Which countries recognize the U.S. Provisional Patent Application? Read on.

Do I have international protection?

First, let’s be clear on what I mean by the U.S. provisional patent application gives you “protection” internationally. if you have a U.S. provisional patent application, you have “protection” in the sense that the filing date you got when you filed the provisional patent application can be used, inherited, or technically called “claimed”, by a foreign patent application. Put more simply, if you file a U.S. provisional patent application on August 1, 2018, you could for example, file a patent application in Canada by August 1, 2019 and it would be like you filed the Canadian application on August 1, 2018, because it would inherit the August 1, 2018 date of the U.S. provisional patent application. This means, your place in line to get a patent with the Canadian patent office is August 1, 2018, and you are in front of others who may have filed with a later date. In this sense, you are “protected”. However, you are not protected in the sense that nobody can make your invention in Canada or foreign countries yet. You need to have the patent application in these foreign countries approved, before you have the full patent rights to potentially stop others from making your invention.

How do I use my U.S. provisional patent application internationally?

You must make sure you file your foreign patent application before the provisional patent application expires. Remember, a U.S. provisional patent application expires 12 months after it is filed. So before it expires, you need to file your international patent applications so that they can inherit the U.S. provisional patent application’s filing date. Each country has their own patent office. So if you wanted a patent in Canada and Australia, for example, you would need to file one patent application in Canada and one patent application in Australia, before your U.S. provisional patent application expires.

Which countries recognize the U.S. provisional patent application?

Generally, countries which are part of the Paris Convention Treaty recognize the U.S. provisional patent application. We would check with a patent practitioner in the country of interest to confirm, prior to filing the patent application. Further, there are countries such as Taiwan, which are not part of the Paris Convention Treaty, but do also recognize the U.S. provisional patent application. We would look into the rules of the country of interest, before applying for a patent application in that country.