Patenting U.S. inventions abroad

After clarifying some commonly held misunderstandings about patent protection in other countries for US inventions, the typical process of obtaining non-US counterpart patents is discussed. The development of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention (EPC) in response to what were felt to be problems in obtaining foreign patent protection is presented, and procedures under the PCT and EPC are analyzed. Certain of the possible advantages and drawbacks of patent applications under these treaties are also discussed.