Thanks for the podcast! I have a provisional for a device. The company has an American presence but they informed me their product development is done by their parent company in Italy. I suppose I should get some patent protection in Italy before pursuing the product with them or does their American presence provide some protection? Thanks again.
The American presence does nothing about any rights you would have outside the United States. The simplest thing to do is to either file a PCT application from your provisional, or file a Non-Provisional application in the U.S. and then a PCT. A third option, but only makes sense if you want protection is to file in specific countries based off of your provisional application. Italy is part of the EU and a European patent application would make sense, which can be done via a PCT application or European regional application without a PCT. I prefer the PCT route unless you really know you're only interested in one or two other countries besides the U.S.
Thanks for the podcast! I have a provisional for a device. The company has an American presence but they informed me their product development is done by their parent company in Italy. I suppose I should get some patent protection in Italy before pursuing the product with them or does their American presence provide some protection? Thanks again.
The American presence does nothing about any rights you would have outside the United States. The simplest thing to do is to either file a PCT application from your provisional, or file a Non-Provisional application in the U.S. and then a PCT. A third option, but only makes sense if you want protection is to file in specific countries based off of your provisional application. Italy is part of the EU and a European patent application would make sense, which can be done via a PCT application or European regional application without a PCT. I prefer the PCT route unless you really know you're only interested in one or two other countries besides the U.S.