How to file a patent outside India – International Patent applications

How to file a patent outside India – International Patent applications

Patents are territorial. That means the right of the patent is limited to the country in which you received the patent protection for your invention.

Now, you may be looking to get a patent for your invention in multiple countries of your interest, or You may be thinking why not get an entire world patent for my invention?

Although your thinking is right, There is nothing called a world patent; However, there are ways you can protect your invention in multiple countries. Some ways are inefficient and expensive while other ways are efficient and inexpensive and saving a lot of rework.

Direct or Paris Convention route: You can directly file separate patent applications at the same time in all of the countries in which you would like to protect your invention (for some countries, regional patents may be available) or, having filed in a Paris Convention country (one of the Member States of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property), then file separate patent applications in other Paris Convention countries within 12 months from the filing date of that first patent application, giving you the benefit in all those countries of claiming the filing date of the first application.

PCT route: You can file an application under the PCT, directly or within the 12-month period provided for by the Paris Convention from the filing date of a first application, which is valid in all Contracting States of the PCT and, therefore,

PCT filing is much simpler, easier, and more cost-effective than both, direct or Paris route filings.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

The PCT is an international treaty with more than 153 Contracting States. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single “international” patent application instead of filing several separate national or regional patent applications. The granting of patents remains under the control of the national or regional patent Offices in what is called the “national phase”.

It is a multilateral treaty that entered into force in 1978. Through PCT, an inventor of a member country (Contracting state of PCT can simultaneously obtain priority for his / her Invention in all/ any of the member countries, without having to file a separate application in the countries of interest, by designating them in the PCT application. India joined the PCT on December 7, 1998.

PCT is an international treaty, which provides the facility to the applicant to file a single patent application and designate the countries in which he/she wants to protect his IP rights. Thus a single patent application is filed for the purpose of an international search report.

A single international patent application has the same effect as national applications filed in each designated Contracting State of the PCT. However, under the PCT system, in order to obtain patent protection in the designated States, a patent shall be granted by each designated State to the claimed invention contained in the international application.

Filing:

You file an international application with a national or regional patent Office or WIPO, complying with the PCT formality requirements, in one language, and you pay one set of fees. International

Search:

An “International Searching Authority” (ISA identifies the published patent documents and technical literature (“prior art”) which may have an influence on whether your invention is patentable, and establishes a written opinion on your invention’s potential patentability.

International Publication:

As soon as possible after the expiration of 18 months from the earliest filing date, the content of your international application is disclosed to the world.

To know more about Patent Cooperation Treaty PCT application and its advantages over the convention application, you may read our section on PCT and International patent application.

You may also check our article on PCT National phase application in India.

Patent Drafting Fees for India-Only vs International (foreign)

₹ 30,000 Patent Drafting professional fees for Indian Filing Only

This discounted fee applies only if you plan to file your patent exclusively in India.
It covers drafting as per Indian Patent Office requirements and is ideal for:

  • Individual inventors or startups focusing only on India
  • Academic or research institutions with local protection needs

However, this version is limited to Indian standards. If you later decide to expand protection internationally (via PCT or convention routes), the application would require restructuring or re-drafting, leading to additional costs and time.

₹50,000 Same Patent application can be filed in India + International (Foreign countries) (Recommended)

Our standard drafting fee of ₹ 50,000 includes a globally compliant patent specification, prepared to meet the formal and legal requirements of major patent offices — such as the USPTO (USA), EPO (Europe), JPO (Japan), and others, in addition to India.

This comprehensive draft:

  • Can be filed in any number of countries without paying drafting fees again
  • Is designed to meet international patent laws and claim standards
  • Ensures smooth filing through PCT or convention routes
  • Adds value for investors, licensees, and global partners

The ₹50,000 global-ready draft is a future-proof investment — ensuring that your patent can easily be extended worldwide whenever you decide to expand.

Why Choose India + International protection for Your invention ?

A patent once drafted properly can be used globally without rework. Paying only ₹20,000 more today saves substantial cost, time, and effort later — while securing stronger protection and higher commercial value.

Patent drafting how patent agent/attorney does it

You may be surprised to know, that patent drafting does not begin with the title of the invention or the abstract; In fact most patent attorneys/agents first draft claims !!!

Claims are the most important part of the patent application. 

  • Claims decide the boundaries of the protection that you would be getting for your invention
  • Claims are used to enforce your patent
  • Claims decide whether the competitor is infringing on your patent
  • Claim are closely examined in the patent examination phase at patent office
  • Claims are most difficult part of patent application to write

Of course, there are other dependencies and rules for other parts of patent applications when deciding scope but it is the claim which stands most important thing that decides the future of your patent.

Important things about claims:

Going too broad or too narrow protection while writing claims would be a mistake.

“Claims should not be too broad because those would be anticipated by existing prior arts, and the claims should not be too narrow because competitors would not be able to work around and use our invention”

The purpose of the claim is to define the invention protected by the patent.

The reason patent agent or attorney starts with writing claims first, because once we have a complete set of claims providing appropriate protection to the invention and which are approved by you (inventor), then writing remaining parts of the patent application like: detailed description, abstract and summary becomes easier as these parts generally follow the boundaries set by claims.

  • Since claims define the scope of legal protection, it is suggested that they should be drafted carefully to cover all the aspects of the protection being sought at the same time adequately distinguishing the prior art from the claimed invention.
  • Unity of invention and clarity of claims
  • a) Claim(s) of a Complete Specification shall relate to a single invention, or to a group of inventions linked so as to form a single inventive concept.
  • b) Claims shall be clear and succinct and fairly based on the matter disclosed in the specification.
  • Significance of Claims
  • a) A claim is a statement of technical facts expressed in legal terms defining the scope of the invention sought to be protected. No exclusivity is obtained for any matter described in the Complete Specification unless it is claimed in the claim 

What is not claimed in the claims stands disclaimed, and is open to public use, even if the matter is disclosed in the description.

Each claim is evaluated on its own merit and, therefore, if one of the claims is objected, it does not mean that the rest of the claims are invalid. It is therefore important to make claims on all aspects of the invention to ensure that the applicant gets the widest possible protection.

And there are many rules and standard practices that a professional would be incorporating while writing claims for your patent application. In short,

“Claims should be written in such a way that they would not be invalidated in the litigation phase and they would not allow competitors to practice the invention without infringing on patented invention”

Just like claims, there are many rules and standards for writing other elements of patent specification like: 

  • A detailed description of the invention
  • Diagrams, illustrations and images
  • Abstract
  • Field of invention
  • Background of the invention
  • Include references to cite
  • Title of the invention
  • disclosing best mode
  • covering all possible embodiments 

and many more…

however, discussing all the rules and regulation is outside the scope of this article and its outcome. Still if you are interested in reading them, below are the documents on the government patent office website you can download and read…

How to file a patent outside India – Foreign patent application

In many cases, your invention may be valuable not only in India but also in other foreign countries (in some cases maybe it is valuable worldwide). In such cases, you may decide to file foreign patent applications by means of either convention route or Patent Cooperation Treaty route.

However, when you decide to file a patent application outside India (foreign countries), there are two ways to do it:

  1. Filing patent applications outside India without filing a patent application in India.
  2. First, filing a patent application in India and then file a patent application in foreign countries.

In any case, it is mandatory to inform the Indian patent office before filing a patent application outside India.

In the 1st case, the patent applicant should take permission from the Indian patent office for filing patent applications outside India. Generally, the patent office replies within 21 days.

Foreign Filing License (FFL), is a permission granted by the Indian Patent Office (IPO), on a request by the applicant, to protect the inventions internationally.

This foreign filing license is required in 2 situations as explained below:

Situation 1: If you are filing patent applications outside India (foreign countries) without filing a patent application in India, then you need to take FFL.

Situation 2: When you have filed the patent application in India but wish to file foreign patent applications before the expiry of 6 months from the filing date of the Indian patent application.

The India patent office generally disposes FFL within 2 weeks’ time when you need to apply for FFL with a request and disclosure of your invention.

Why Foreign Filing License is Needed

The fundamental reason behind this provision is all the patent applications that are going out of India (may it be any situation explained above) the invention disclosure is once verified for Not containing any sensitive information for our country (India). Such sensitive information may be related to defense purposes and other such technologies.

If you fail to obtain FFL and filed a patent application directly into foreign countries (without informing the Indian patent office) then it is considered a serious offense and you may be facing penalties or punishment.

How to Apply for Foreign Filing License FFL

  • Disclosure of Invention: this would be a brief description covering the main invention and its overall concept.
  • Details about the inventor’s name, addresses, and nationality.
  • Details of the applicant.
  • Details about countries in which the patent application is to be filed.
  • Details about the reason for foreign filing.

As explained in section 39 of the Indian Patent Act: Residents not to apply for patents outside India without prior permission.

(1) No person resident in India shall, except under the authority of a written permit sought in the manner prescribed and granted by or on behalf of the Controller, make or cause to be made any application outside India for the grant of a patent for an invention unless—

(a) an application for a patent for the same invention has been made in India, not less than six weeks before the application outside India; and

(b) Either no direction has been given under sub-section (1) of section 35 in relation to the application in India, or all such directions have been revoked.

(2) The Controller shall dispose of every such application within such period as may be prescribed:

Provided that if the invention is relevant for defense purposes or atomic energy, the Controller shall not grant permit without the prior consent of the Central Government.

(3) This section shall not apply in relation to an invention for which an application for protection has first been filed in a country outside India by a person resident outside India.

You can reach patent professionals and attorneys here for further guidance on filing patents in foreign countries.

Prasad Karhad
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