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I recently filed a provisional application. The invention is in a late stage of development in terms of bringing to market. So my question is if I were to begin sale before a PCT is filed, but within one year of the provisional, would I still maintain my IP claim in the PCT? Also if I would in a country where the law is 6 months from disclosure (like China) would I have to file the PCT within 6 months of sale or would I have the full year from the provisional filing date?

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To answer the question of title - Yes if it a very good provisional application, No if is done by yourself or for any other reason the PCT needs more detail or other new matter.

Under the terms of the Paris Convention, to which China is a contracting party, the first application in any Paris country for a particular subject mater can be used as a priority filing in any other Paris country to allow 12 months to file.

The six month grace period in China to file from when novelty is broken only applies in very specific cases. Not relevant in youir case if you file in 12 months since the Paris Convention provisions are such that novelty isn't considered broken by a disclosure if the first Paris filing is done before that disclosure.

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  • Big IF: your cannot add anything to the provisional when filling the PCT without that anything losing priority, unless it's basically literally taken from the description of the provisional (and therefore not added). So if the provisional is self-written, was cheap or "provisional", you cannot heal those problems.
    – user18033
    Apr 16, 2021 at 5:10
  • If you haven't made any public disclosure yet then you should make the PCT as complete as you can and don't worry about what aspects might be subject to priority and which won't.
    – George White ♦
    Apr 16, 2021 at 18:51
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    Yes, true. I implicitly assumed that the PCT would bet filed after a publication.
    – user18033
    Apr 16, 2021 at 19:22
  • You made a good assumption based on the wording of the question. I was just putting my comment in for others that might look at the answer.
    – George White ♦
    Apr 17, 2021 at 2:37
  • I edited the answer, thanks
    – George White ♦
    Apr 17, 2021 at 3:19

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