Patent Cooperation Treaty · 150+ states
Section 39 permission checked before anything leaves India
The PCT does not grant you a patent — no such thing exists. What it buys you is around 30 months from your priority date, one filing instead of many, and a search report that tells you what you are up against before you commit country by country.
Priority date — your first filing
PCT application filed
WIPO publication & search report
National-phase entry decisions
First principles
A treaty administered by WIPO, with more than 150 contracting states, that lets one application hold your date across all of them while you decide where protection is worth paying for.
Two halves, one timeline
Almost every misunderstanding about the PCT comes from treating these two as one thing. They have different offices, different costs and different consequences.
One application, filed at a Receiving Office. It is searched, published by WIPO and — if you ask for it — examined in preliminary form. Nothing is granted here. What you are buying is a held date, a search report and time.
You enter the countries you have chosen, one by one. Each office examines under its own law, with its own fees, its own translations and its own local attorney. This is where the real cost sits — which is exactly why the first phase is worth having.
Choosing the route
Four different things that get used interchangeably in conversation and are not interchangeable in practice. Which one is right depends on how many countries you need and how certain you already are about them.
| Route | What it is | Decision window | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic filing | An Indian application at the Indian Patent Office. Sets your priority date. | Starts the clock | India is the market, or you need a priority date now. |
| Paris Convention | Direct filings in chosen countries within 12 months of priority, each on its own. | 12 months | You already know the two or three countries and want to move fast. |
| PCT | One international application that preserves your date across contracting states. | ≈ 30 months | Several countries, or the country list is not settled yet. |
| National phase | Entering individual countries out of a PCT application. | ≈ 30 months from priority | The stage where PCT applications become real, examinable patents. |
Fit
Or will within two years. Protection follows the market, and the market is already outside India.
A PCT application is a defensible answer to “what is your international position?” while the answer is still being decided.
Where a product is made matters as much as where it is sold — both are territories worth holding.
A held international date makes a technology far easier to license — and buys time to find the licensee.
Before filing
Five of these are paperwork. The sixth is a legal precondition, and getting it wrong is not recoverable.
With claims, an abstract and drawings. The PCT is not a place to file a rough idea and tidy it later.
Full legal names, addresses and nationalities, exactly as they should appear on the record.
If you are claiming an earlier Indian filing, its certified copy and its date.
The form appointing us to act, executed by the applicant.
Not final — but where you actually sell, manufacture and import matters more than where you would like to.
Essential. An Indian resident generally may not file abroad without permission from the Indian Patent Office, or without first filing in India and waiting the prescribed period. We check this before anything leaves the country.
Learn these cheaply
Every one of these is recoverable before it happens and mostly unrecoverable afterwards.
The earlier date is simply lost, and with it any protection against everything published in the meantime — including your own disclosures.
A compliance failure with consequences for the Indian application and for the applicant. It is a five-minute check that nobody should skip.
Territory is the most expensive thing on the invoice. A patent in a country you never enter protects nothing.
It is an opinion. National offices reach their own conclusions, and a discouraging report is often answerable with amended claims.
Translations, local agents and fees all take time to arrange. Deciding late costs more and sometimes costs the country.
Eight steps
The order matters. Two of these steps exist specifically to stop the mistakes above from happening.
What has been filed already, when, and what the real priority date is. Everything downstream depends on this being right.
PCT or direct Paris Convention filings. With two settled countries the direct route is often cheaper; with an unsettled list the PCT usually wins.
Whether foreign filing permission is required and, if so, obtaining it before anything is filed outside India.
Claims, abstract, drawings, forms and the priority document, prepared to the standard the Receiving Office expects.
The application is filed and the international filing date secured, with fees and formalities handled end to end.
The search report and written opinion are reviewed with you — this is the first real read on how strong the claims are.
Where it is worth having: a second look, and a chance to amend before national offices see the case.
Countries chosen against real markets, translations and local agents arranged early, entries filed well before the deadline.
A PCT filing is really two budgets: a smaller international one now and a much larger national one later. Anyone quoting a single flat number for “international patent” is quoting for the first and hiding the second. Tell us your invention and your markets and you will get both, in writing.
Official fees payable to WIPO, the Receiving Office and each national office are always quoted separately from professional fees, so you can see which is which.
The single largest factor. National phase is priced per territory, every time.
Pages and claims above the prescribed limits attract additional official fees.
Different International Searching Authorities charge differently and search differently.
Several national phases require certified translation of the whole specification.
Some offices apply reduced official fees for individuals, small entities and startups.
Straight answers
No — and no such patent exists anywhere. The PCT gives you one application that holds your filing date across more than 150 contracting states while you decide where to proceed. Every actual patent is granted by a national or regional office under its own law, at the national phase.
WIPO administers the system: it receives, publishes and coordinates international applications, and arranges the international search. It does not examine for grant, does not refuse applications and does not enforce anything. Think of it as the machinery of the process rather than an authority over the outcome.
Approximately 30 months from your priority date, though the exact deadline varies by country — a few allow 31 months, and a small number differ further. That runway is the main commercial reason to use the PCT at all: it lets market evidence, not guesswork, decide where you spend.
It depends on the things listed above — how many countries you enter, the length of the specification and claim count, which searching authority handles the case, translations, and any fee reliefs you qualify for. We quote against your actual invention and market list, and we always show official fees payable to WIPO and to each office separately from our professional fees, so you can see exactly what is going where. Send us the details and we will put a written quote together.
Usually, yes. Under Section 39 of the Patents Act, a person resident in India generally may not apply abroad for a patent on an invention without either written permission from the Indian Patent Office, or having first filed in India and waited the prescribed period. It is checked at the start of every engagement, before anything is filed outside the country.
Yes. A country outside the treaty is filed into directly, under its own rules and its own deadlines — often within the 12-month Paris Convention window rather than the 30-month one. If a non-contracting state matters to you, it needs to be identified early, because its clock is shorter.
No. It tells you what the searching authority found and what it thinks about novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. National offices are not bound by it and frequently reach different conclusions. A discouraging report is a signal to amend and argue, not a reason to stop — and an encouraging one is not a guarantee.
Where this usually goes next
The Indian filing that usually sets the priority date a PCT application claims.
Patent registrationOwning a patent in a country and being free to sell there are two different questions.
FTO serviceRenewals, deadlines and monitoring across every territory you enter.
IP managementFiling and prosecution in India for applicants based outside it.
International clientsTalk to an expert
We will tell you whether the PCT is the right route or whether two direct filings would serve you better — before you spend anything on either.