Karen Sandrik
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 0
Get eBook
Patent rights are territorial. A patent granted in the United States is only enforceable in the United States. Yet increasingly so, a successful launch of new technology or a product requires global strategy, and global strategy requires global patent protection. Seeking patent protection in multiple countries is routine for many companies. And while these multi-national teams of patent counsel and global administrative support are skilled at navigating different patentability requirements and processes, they are currently experiencing a new challenge: defending the priority date of their original patent application when seeking transnational patent protection. Companies are facing this challenge because of differences in patent assignment laws around the world. Patent assignment laws play a crucial role in patent protection, with the majority of patentable inventions around the world created by employees and assigned to employers. This Article demonstrates the interconnection of patent priority around the world by showing how the application of different rules regarding patent assignment law and patent priority currently lead to higher transaction costs and wasteful, if not abusive, litigation. This Article proposes two possible solutions to the global problem of proving patent priority: build a centralized recordation database modeled after the already-existing secured transactions recordation systems in place in almost every country worldwide, or, alternatively, include a disclosure requirement in the already-existing transnational patenting processes.