I am from Qatar and planning to file a patent application at national level, then a month later to file a PCT application for the same patent. I was told that the national level approval will take around 12-18 months. So after I get the national level approval, I will start filing patents in other countries. How is that sounds? I am planning to do this to save money in case the patent was rejected in the national level. And should PCT application wording/format should be exactly as the field national application? because after I file the national patent request, I will have some more time and freedom to develop the format/wording of the PCT application, of curse by keeping the main things (invention) without change. Thank you in advance for your assitance!
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1IMPORTANT - you need to file the PCT application within 12 months of the first national filing.– George White ♦Aug 27, 2018 at 20:27
2 Answers
As regards time schedule please refer answer here.
to patent world wide or is one country good enough?.
As for "in case the patent was rejected in the national level", I would like to point out that WIPO does not approve or reject any patent application; it simply determines patentability of a PCT application and if required changes of claims can be made to make the application patentable at PCT level. Entering national level is solely at the discretion of the applicant.
"Wordings" in specification can be changed without changing the substance. The claims can be changed but must be supported by your disclosure in specification.
Best of luck.
The content can be the same. There may be different formatting rules between your country's requirements and the requirements of the PCT. Your country may very well have adopted the PCT format requirements. In the US, there are small differences - page number locations that are allowed that are not allowed in a PCT application, for example. The PCT is also more strict on the format of drawings than the U.S. You say you might wait for good news on the national application before filing elsewhere. That makes sense if you are talking about entering the national stage via the PCT application. You will have at least 30 months to do that after the date of your first (local) filing. If you want to apply to locations that are not part of the PCT (Argentina and Taiwan for example) that would need to be done within a year of that first filing.
