Breakthrough Chemistry Inc (BKTH)

[I ll be back]

A company does not need to have its patent review completed before rolling out a pilot program in a foreign country.

Patent systems are territorial.
A U.S. patent protects you only in the U.S.
A Chinese patent protects you only in China.
A German patent protects you only in Germany.

So a company can absolutely run a pilot program in another country without having a patent granted anywhere. There is no legal requirement that a patent be approved before testing or deploying a product.

But there are three major strategic risks to consider.

Public disclosure can destroy patent rights in many countries
If the pilot program publicly exposes the invention — through:

Demonstrations
Sales
Public use
Marketing
Customer access

— then in many countries (Europe, China, Japan, etc.) you lose the ability to file a patent afterward because they require absolute novelty.

The U.S. is more forgiving: it gives a 1-year grace period after public disclosure.