International Patents
If my invention is known overseas, can I patent it in the UK?
If your invention is known in another country that means that it's already known, because the test in the UK to decide whether something is new or not is a world-wide test. So that means that your invention that's known overseas counts against you in the UK, and you wouldn't be able to get a patent in the UK.
Will my patent be worldwide?
In general, patents apply in the country in which they're filed. So if you want to patent in any given country, you need to apply in that country and there is no such thing as a worldwide patent.
What is a European patent?
A European patent is a patent granted by the European Patent Office. And the patent application is examined centrally by an examiner, usually in Munich or in the Hague, who will then issue an examination report and will grant the patent once he's satisfied that it meets all the requirements. Once the European patent is granted, it's turned into national patents in the individual states you choose as the owner of the patent. And you often need to have a translation into the international language. So, on grant, it can be relatively expensive, but up until grant, it can be relatively cost effective to get Europe-wide protection.
How do I get patents overseas?
Most people get overseas patent protections by filing in their home country; and then they have a twelve (12) month period in which they can file in most other countries of the world and claim the date on which they filed in their home country for those overseas patent applications. So the novelty of their inventions in the overseas territories is judged at the date that they filed in their home territory. But what a lot of people also do in that twelve month period, is they file what is called an international patent application that covers over 130 countries in a single application, and it covers them for the next eighteen months (18) before you have to then have to take a decision as to which countries you want to go ahead in. Now when you go ahead nationally in individual countries; it becomes quite expensive because you need local representation and you might need translations into the local language, but you can buy yourself 2.5 years of time using the international patent application procedure. And that is often enough time to start generating revenues, for example, from any invention you created.