Acquiring a patent in the UK is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of obtaining a patent abroad. In the UK, the official applications, search and examination fee required by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) amounts to about 200 GBP. However, in overseas jurisdictions, especially in Europe, there is a possibility that only the fee will be thousands of pounds.
Therefore, submitting a foreign patent application is not commercially meaningful unless you are doing as much as possible to ensure that your patent is highly likely to be accepted.
Prior to filing a British patent application, an early background study should be undertaken to take into account the preliminary disclosure (prior art) that can be easily obtained. Freely available patent databases such as Espacenet can search keywords easily and safely.
We strongly recommend paying application fee and search fee when filing your British patent application. This will start the first step of the patent acquisition process at UKIPO and the examiner will perform his formal worldwide patent search.
Application fee and search fee do not have to be paid at the time of filing, but search takes 3 to 6 months. If you are not considering filing overseas patents during the first anniversary of British patent applications or when you are considering filing overseas patents, you may find that your invention is actually new with gambling unnecessarily. Therefore, it is recommended that you pay application fee and search fee when applying for British patent application.
If you submit the search results before the one year deadline for submitting a foreign patent application, you will receive reasonable assurance about whether you should purchase overseas patent protection.
If the investigation report is negative, we may decide not to pursue patent protection in foreign markets. However, the patent attorney can review the search results and advise on the possibility of success.
In general, when obtaining a patent is reasonable, it is recommended that you seek overseas patent protection. In light of the search report of UKIPO, a high-quality global patent search, this decision will be easier and will enable better information and commercial and financial decisions to be made.
Of course, your decision to file overseas patent applications may be on a commercial basis. It makes sense to receive as much information and advice as possible to make informed decisions.
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