Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Investor2014]

PCT – The International Patent System

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions.

By filing one international patent application under the PCT, applicants can simultaneously seek protection for an invention in a large number of countries

Once PCT patent is granted the applicant still needs to apply to each treaty country, where the legal owner of the IP wants to enforced protection. The acceptance of the application in a country is not guaranteed, but highly likely.

In my case I applied to the EPO first and then within a year to WIPO. This is a good option because the EPO prior art search is highly regarded and ensures that most country patent agencies later applied to will only do a cursory, if any, search speeding up the process and lowering cost as less goes back to the IP lawyers used.

I had a PCT patent granted in 2019 and have only now completed enforcement rights in the thirteen countries I decided to have the patent enforceable.